


Mass Effect; Diary of a Succubus

by Lady_Fenikkusu



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: AU, Demons, F/M, Hybrids, Interspecies Relationship(s), Monsters, Not Beta Read, Slow Updates, Succubus, incubus, learning, some chapters may not be safe for work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-06-22 07:54:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15577284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Fenikkusu/pseuds/Lady_Fenikkusu
Summary: This little bug bit me after I started the Succubus drabbles in the Moments serise and has been slowly growing and developing over time since, I did touch upon it in my Angara Moments, but now here it is, the story of the Succubus Anna Shepard and her family as they struggle to find their place in the stars,  despite the constant trials from Humanity and even other races.More in the Notes





	1. A meeting.

**Author's Note:**

> Basically this story is a bit of an altered tale spanning all of Mass Effect, starting WAY before the first game, but there are some changes. 
> 
> All reasons will be explained in the story, but in basic terms here it is.
> 
> Cassie Ryder, her son Alec, Tara Brown, Hannah Shepard and Miranda Lawson are all Succubus, Alec, an Incubus and between them, they have all lived worked and survived on earth for centuries, but now that the Council knows humanity is not the only race upon Earth, questions need answers and everyone has to start rethinking their battle plans and futures. For some that is easy, but for others its a very difficult task.
> 
> Follow Anna's journey as she makes the first steps to give her kin and her self a future in the stars.

Mass Effect;   
Diary of the Succubus.

Humanity, like all the Races, had their own secretes. That was the norm, all Races had something that was kept from the others. 

It wasn’t the norm that those secretes couldn’t be found even by the Shadow Broker, and that news was enough to peek the Council’s interests about the small blue and green planet that was the birth place to the soft skinned creatures. But despite their efforts to learn the hidden things about the human world and the race itself, even with the threat of death, the humans refused to give up their secretes and those who seemed the kind to easily break and give what was asked suddenly got VERY tight lipped.

It became a frustration to Councilor Sparatus, though he kept it to himself whenever he spoke to the Alliance Board, or even to the Ambassador, how could the humans keep from speaking about something for so long when they had been eager and willing to share most other things? What could they possibly have hidden on their world that could cause such a silence?

Then, be it fate or stupidity, there was an attack on Earth, a Batarian attempt to claim the world as their own, demanding that the humans share their vast hidden resources.

However, before the attack could kill more than a small hand full of ships and before any of the Council Fleets could respond to the attack, a strange almost beautiful aura of colors flooded forth from the Earth and Batarian life signatures quickly began to drop, as if they were dead or dying.

When there were no more Batarians left alive, the aura slowly faded away, as if it had never been there at all, but then without warning the Batarian ships began to explode from the inside and burn up into harmless masses as they entered the atmosphere of the blue and green world. 

The Batarians were not happy that such a weapon was kept from them and while they had demanded blood, it was soon clear to the Citadel Council that the Humans themselves were not the ones talking back to the Batarians as the voice was a woman none of them had ever heard before, stating rather calmly that when their home was threatened it was only natural to protect it, even if that threat was part of a galactic union or group that was meant to be living in harmony with the Council races.

When one fool Batarian breathed an insult towards the woman speaking, he began to chock and wheeze over the comms as the woman he’d insulted reminded everyone listening that the so-called weapon could be easily used again and could in fact be used planet wide on any planet if there was any more foolishness.

It was not long after that warning when Admiral Hackett, Captain Anderson and Ambassador Udina were all heard arguing in Udina’s office about ‘Them’ and ‘Their actions causing problems for Humanity in the long run’. It was during that meeting that a grey-haired man in an N7 marked uniform marched in and reminded the Ambassador that Humanity shut out his kind years before and that if the Batarians or any Alien Race attempted to attack the Earth again, they would be met with the full force of him and his kin with an attack so powerful even Cerberus would not seem like such a threat.

It was that threat that had lead to the Council to their current predicament. 

What to do about this little mess. 

Councilor Tevos, ever the voice of reason, deduced that it was unwise to go in and demand answers from the humans about what had happened as such methods only made them look like a threat to the as yet unknown factor on Earth and while he agreed with her, Councilor Sparatus was not happy that such powerful and clearly influential member of Earth’s race had been hidden from them for so long and he was also confused as to why these same beings had not been seen during the First Contact War. 

Councilor Valern pointed out that there was clearly some hostility between this unknown factor and humanity, meaning it was likely that to the humans, this factor was likely something like the Krogan, made to be brutal and barbaric, but then tossed aside when they proved too unruly to be part of the main strength.

“Do not place such stupidity as your own on the humans because you fail to do your own independent research.”

All eyes fell upon the man who had spoken and the woman with him as they stood with Captain Anderson on the platform below them, Admiral Hackett and a very unhappy looking Ambassador Udina were also present. “Councilors, allow me to introduce Commander John Shepard and Doctor Ellen Ryder. They were sent here on behalf of their respected partners.” Captain Anderson explained.

“And who would their partners be?” Councilor Sparatus asked evenly.

“The ones who protected the earth against the Batarians.” The Commander stated evenly. “As Humanity’s ignorance can no longer remain their own, the head of our families has requested a meeting.” 

“Why have they not come here themselves?” Councilor Tevos asked.

“By order of the Human Alliance, heads of states and in accordance with the none human truce of harmony upon earth, no Succubus or Incubus, be they half or full blood, will leave the surface of earth without first requesting permission of the Alliance.” Doctor Ellen read off from a sheet of paper she had with her. “This document was made some years ago, but despite countless centuries passing and advancements in technology, Humanity has refused to allow those more powerful then themselves have any kind of true power or control in their future without humans having a say.”

“And just what are your partners if not human?”

“Parasites who should never have been left alive.” Udina spat only to have the Doctor round of him with such speed and such anger that Sparatus was unable to hide the shock as the woman cursed in some Earthen tongue his translator struggled to correctly pick up. Most of her words seemed to be threats, a reminder of just who her husband was and that she herself knew a few ways to hide a dead body.

“Ellen.” The Commander pleaded softly, though he too was angered by Udina’s words. “Let the fool dig his own grave, we both know Alec will hear of this and we both know he will suffer for such insults.”

“I should hope so,” Ellen hissed, a hand gently rubbing her stomach as if trying to settle it. “Parasites indeed.”

“And this meeting,” Councilor Tevos began, trying to stir the conversation back on to its original course. “Where would it be held?” 

“As they cannot leave Earth’s surface, they have asked that it be done in the home of their elder,” The Commander explained while showing them a set of coordinates via his omni tool, a small location hidden away from humans. “They leave the time of this meeting to you.”

“And how would we contact them to arrange it?” The Asari asked.

“Admiral Hackett is in contact with my wife and Ellen’s husband through work, if you require contact with them, go through him.” The Commander stated, then seemed to smile as his Omni tool binged. “Now if you will excuse us, we have another appointment to keep.”

And before anyone could stop them, the two seemed to suddenly vanish away into a swirling mass of color.

~~~

“I still say we shouldn’t trust them,” Udina said. 

“We heard you the first sixteen times, Udina.” Hackett stated, making no secret of the fact he was ignoring Udina as he looked over the apparent mountain of files and paper work that had arrived on his desk with Anderson, signing and stamping the papers as if he did this every day.

It was a little shocking to see, if the Turian Councilor was honest, but if he had known that it took so many pieces of paper to arrange a meeting on earth, he could understand why Captain Anderson and Councilor Tevos got along so very well.

“They could ruin everything!” Udina yelled. “They are nothing but-”

“Or they could stabilize the issues we have and do as they have always done, find a place they like, settle down and live their lives as they see fit. WITHOUT you and your foolish spied trying to ruin their reputations.” Hackett said, cutting off the insult on Udina’s tongue. “Now either help us with the paper work to allow this meeting or get out and go find someone else to rave to.” 

Looking rather red faced and unhappy he was being ignored, the Ambassador left the room with a huff. “Thank you, Admiral.”

“Remind me to increase your payments for working with that kind of attitude.” Hackett said as he worked through another pile of papers. “Why haven’t we digitalized this process yet?”

“Because computers can be hacked and we’re the only race who still uses paper for anything besides making hard back books.” Anderson smiled with a small chuckle. “Plus, I find it rather relaxing, when you don’t have to listen to Udina whining like a school boy.”

Hackett smiled, “Never let my wife hear you say that, she’ll ask you over to file her collection of papers.”

Anderson smiled but chose not to answer in favor of greeting the Turian councilor at his door. “Is there something you wanted Councilor Sparatus?” 

“Just to confirm that we will be leaving the station in the hands of our junior councilors for no longer than two to three days.” The Turian stated and Hackett nodded.

“The ladies we are going to see may not be permitted to leave earth’s surface, but they know far more than most humans do about timing and the weight of political burdens. They will not keep you too long.” The old man assured. “Udina on the other hand.”

Anderson chuckled. “Oh, woe unto that man’s head.” 

“You would wish harm on him?” Sparatus asked.

“He insults the ladies and their families simply because he hasn’t taken a moment to get to know them for himself and instead bases his opinion on the views and thoughts of others like himself who do not trust them.” Anderson said. “Surly even Turians have a rule about such behavior?”

“We do not judge one another until we have at the very least worked together for a few missions.” The Turian Councilor nodded. 

“Then you can understand why Udina’s behavior towards Doctor Ryder will be sternly reprimanded.” Hackett said, “I may not agree with some things in life but no man, no matter their standing will insult a woman and her unborn children in my presence and not get some form of punishment.”

“I’d recommend a punishment, but I still have to work with Udina after this,” Anderson sighed. “Are you sure we can’t re-do the election of who gets to be ambassador? Maybe have someone who isn’t a total ass?”

“We have to wait for another brave candidate to apply for the job, remember Udina only got this post because the other guy dropped out.” Hackett reminded as he finished his pile of papers and began yet another, “Will there be anything else Councilor?”

“No.” And with that Sparatus left the office.

~~~

The trip to earth was filled with the usual events, reporters from every station and race gathered at the docks of the Destiny Ascension, trying to get a perfect picture or video clip for their reports while the human ships that would escort the Council ships hovered just beyond the docks, waiting to fall into place and do their job.

The flight to earth was calm and easy, even the entry to earth’s atmosphere was smoother than normal, though Udina seemed unable to keep his stomach settled, despite his best efforts.

The shuttle pilot took a moment to let Udina off at the hospital for his sickness and then took the Council, Admiral Hackett, Captain Anderson and their escorts to wards the given location, a place Sparatus found rather beautiful despite its alien appearance, strange flowers and trees flourished in the area, strange animals rushed to find hiding places as the shuttle flew overhead, slowing down to a hover as a large scanner swept over them.

“Shuttle Identification and passenger manifesto please.” A female voice asked.

“This is Shuttle seven dash six dash three, piloted by Jamie Graford. Passenger manifesto carrying Admiral Steven Hackett, escorted by personal guard Fredrik Downing, Captain David Anderson escorted by personal guard Kaiden Alenko and the Citadel Council, Asari Councilor Tevos, Turian Councilor Sparatus and Salarian Councilor Valern, escorted by Asari Matriarch Benezia, Turian Spector Saren Arterius and STG Salarian Mordin Solus. Expected guests of Lady Cassie Ryder.” The pilot stated calmly.

“Verifying identification, please wait.” The voice requested then came back. “please verify, you are not carrying Ambassador Donald Udina and Escort Guard Simon Finn?”

“Ambassador Udina had been struck down with a bout of vomiting, he and his guard had remained behind at the local hospital.” The pilot explained.

“Verifying. Please stand by.” The voice repeated and then paused. “Verification confirmed, please follow given flight path and land in bay one.”

“Confirmed. Thank you.” The pilot assured, and the shuttle began to move again.

“Interesting security system.” Mordin stated from his seat. “Advanced even for humans.”

“Lady Cassie Ryder prides herself on the safety of her family.” Hackett said with a small smile. “She pays for everything to keep them safe, even if they don’t request it.”

“Paranoid?” Mordin asked.

“No, just her way of providing something to the family and their future children.” Hackett said, “Lady Tara is the one who keeps the garden and wild life protected and cared for. Alec Ryder and John Shepard keep the media away, Ellen take care of the house and Hannah takes care of schooling and raising Anna.”

“How old is Anna now, twelve?” Anderson asked.

“Fifteen, her birth day is in three weeks.” Hackett corrected as the shuttle came into land, giving off a soft hum as the engines powered down and the craft gave a very small jerk as it hit landed on the platform.

The docking bay wasn’t terribly busy with activity, people worked at small terminals, repairing and checking two other shuttles, but it took less than a minute for everyone aboard the shuttle to realize there were armed guard at the doors of the bay and at the doors leading out of it.

“You’re sure that this Lady Ryder is not paranoid?” Benezia asked.

“I’ll leave it to her to explain her reasons.” Hackett said, “This way please.” He added leading the group out of the bay and towards the main house.

Along the way, Sparatus felt several more scans pass over him, noticing several guards walking the outside of the house and a few hidden security weapons in the walls and floor. Whomever lived here had spared no expense in keeping the house hold and its occupants safe, the scanners were not only deep, they made it impossible for an imposter to get very far before being found out.

They kept walking, ascending via a grand stair case to an upper level were the security only got greater until they reach a room where a bright blue wall of energy stood in their way rather than a door. Hackett placed his hand on a scanner and after a moment the device gave a soft ping. “Lady Cassie Ryder, your guests have arrived.” A female voice stated.

“Thank you, Navi.” An elderly voice confirmed. “Access Granted code, one dash seven dot six.” She added and the blue wall fell down and allowed then entrance to the room.

Inside was an elderly woman sat in hovering chair, working at a small computer terminal. She had graying hair, woven into a tight braid that then wrapped around her head, and she was dressed in an elegant dress of black, gold, purple and blue, with what looked like glowing tattoos over her face, neck, shoulders arms, hands even more that seemed to shine through from underneath the dress she wore.

“Lady Cassie Ryder.” Hackett greeted, quickly removing his hat, Captain Anderson quickly standing to perfect attention, as did their escorts.

“Or do stop with the formalities Hackett, you know I hate them.” The woman asked, a small smile on her face as she waved a hand to the empty chairs before her desk. “Please sit, all of you, it has been a while since I had guests to my home.” She added with a kind smile, “I understand there has been an issue with Udina during transport and for that reason he will not be joining us?”

“He came down with a bout of sickness, yes.” Hackett said. 

There was a smile on the elderly woman’s face that should not have been there. “What a shame. Now, to business. My name is Cassandra Elizabeth Ryder, though many have taken to calling me Cassie for short, you are all here, no doubt because you saw or heard of the ‘weapon’ that stopped the Batarians and their foolish attempt to attack Earth, yes?” She asked of the Council as they were seated.

“We watched footage from the attack gathered by Alliance ships in the area,” Tevos nodded, “But it has led to some unrest amongst the races.” She added. “Some of us find it very troubling and worrying that such a weapon was kept hidden from the Council by Humanity for such a long time.”

“And why it wasn’t used during the First Contact War.” Sparatus stated.

“It was not needed.” The woman stated back calmly, “The Turians did not attack or make threats towards our home directly, and thus we did not step to field as it were.” She explained, “but that would be starting in the middle of the story. Not the beginning.”

“What do you mean?” Tevos asked. “Humanity has shared its history with the Council.” She began only to stop as the elder woman chuckled almost fondly.

“My dear girl, the Humans shared with you their version of history on earth, no doubt you heard of the great Conquests, Inquisitions, Revolutions, the World Wars, Parliament battles and other such things that humans pride themselves on sharing. But as is the case on your Citadel, Humans are not the only race that lives on Earth, they are just the most numerus.” She explained, “there are many races here, all of them human at first glance, but that is only because we chose to hide what we are as a means to avoid unfair and unjust prejudice towards us.”

“Lady Ryder.” A new voice stated calmly as a guard stepped into the room. “Udina has arrived via the front gate, he is demanding to be let in.”

“Have Alec bring him in. And remind him that this is my house and not his political playground, one insult towards any of us, staff or other wise and I will have him thrown out.” Lady Cassie instructed.

“Yes ma’am.” The guard nodded and hurried off.

“Do not apologize for him Hackett, you are a better man than him and he has no right to call himself an ambassador is he can not speak for all of the Earth racers.” The woman said and then looked back to the Council. “Humanity has asked to be part of your little group of races in space, but in the years and centuries before the humans took to the stars they were busy trying and failing in some cases to become the only alpha race upon the planets surface, granted not all humans were so blindly stupid as to believe the masses of foolishness spat at us, but somewhere, and they were able to almost completely wipe out several of the old races, if you have looked into Earth culture you know these races as monsters, demons and magic beasts.”

“Such things are make believe.” Councilor Valern began. “Human imaginations created such things to entertain children and young ones.”

“Are they?” The woman asked with a small smile, looking at Hackett, “You have not taken a moment to explain or show them?” 

“Udina has made sure his vile of silence is air tight on the Citadel.” Hackett said. “even the Brass backed him on that.”

“Well, such a shame, but this is not the Citadel.” She reminded. “You are under no rules to remain hidden if you do not wish to be.”

Hackett smiled and nodded, setting his hat down on the desk carefully and right in front of everyone’s eyes, his skin pales to ashen gray and his eyes gained a red hue, his finger nails sharpening to points and his ears sharpening to points as a small pair of horns curved back along his fringe line.

“What in the Spirits names?” Councilor Sparatus asked.

“I am what humans call a Wraith. Creatures of strength, wit, shadow mastery and cunning, we begin life as frail children, often ill and weak with sicknesses and fevers, but if we survive to the age of six, the illnesses go away and we start to develop their true skills.” The old Admiral explained calmly, “I was never allowed to show this form to you as Udina and many of the Alliance brass refuse to accept that not all their soldiers are human, and they fear we would ask the Council to kill humanity as a whole so that we may one day reclaim earth as our own.” Hackett explained.

“Steven has been a friend to my kin and I for many centuries, he is God father to my son, and a well loved grand father figure to Anna.” Cassie stated. “In this house, I have a rule that no ‘creature’ as Udina labels us, will be forced to hide their true self. I do not abide by such foolishness.” She added with a small smile. “Now, shall we start at the beginning?”

“Does Udina know that Hackett is...?” Tevos asked.

“He does, but there is nothing he can do about it as he wasn’t even a speck in humanities mind when I was born.” Hackett assured as the sound of an unhappy Udina reached them. 

And then Udina was in the room and his stopped dead when he saw Hackett. “You are breaking Alliance command ru-”

“This building and its grounds are not ruled by your beloved Alliance. They have no hold on anyone here and they aren’t here to save your pathetic ass if you breath one insult about my wife and our unborn children.” The man behind Udina hissed as he rather harshly pushed Udina into a seat. “Now shut up and listen like a good boy or you’ll be out that window before you can blink.” 

“Alec.” Cassie soothed softly, and the man huffed moving to stand behind the older woman, heels together, arms behind his back and shoulders squared. “My Son, Alec Ryder, N7 Commander, Husband to Doctor Ellen Ryder and part time technical designer.” She smiled. “Now, before we begin, would anyone care for a cup of tea?”


	2. A History Lesson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Council finds out that Earth is a lot more diverse than they first thought and learn the dark histories of the planet's oldest inhabitants.

Chapter 2

Hackett, Anderson and Alec were the only ones to take the offer of tea, though eventually, Councilor Tevos requested one with caramel after catching the scent of the flavor in the air.

As promised, Lady Cassie began at the very beginning of humanities history and retold it with the aid of several large books and photo albums that had clearly been very well cared for over the years, the images told a story that was familiar to the Council, but at the same time, it was horrifyingly new and savage.

Humanity, as a whole, made up almost 70% of the world’s population. The other 30% were classified as ‘creatures’, and they consisted of super natural beings, such a magics, who had long ago gone into working as herbal farmers and healing professionals to ensure that their blood lines were safe. Of all the creatures, they were the most welcomed by humanity. Then there were the skin shifters, creatures that- No. Tevos shook her self mentally, they were not creatures, they were beings like herself. Beings that could change their shapes and appearances to survive the harshest weathers and dangers of the world, they had taken to living in remote areas, hidden away from humans in what Lady Cassie explained as a sanctuary created by the last Giant before his death in the year 1106, it still existed today, but was heavily protected and guarded by the next race of beings that humanity shared earth with.

Wraiths. 

Hackett had taken everyone’s attention with his change, but his story of his people and how they were viewed by humans and why they chose to protect the Skin shifters was heart wrenching. Skin shifters were hunted and killed for their skins and often those killed were children, leading to the extinction of many animals and their furs were now lost in some fashion design or other beyond salvation, Hackett as a child had been in love with one such skin shifter and her death at the hands of an exotic hunter had driven the Wraith to his wits end with Humans, he had rallied the none humans, Vampires, Skin shifters, Magics and all others he could find and led a war on the humans.

That war had lasted many years and it had been a very young Cassie Ryder herself who brought it to and end by killing the human war mongers who had been the cause of it all and in her young age, she had laid down the first law that favored the creatures and gave them some safety against humanity.

No Skin shifter would be hunted again, and any who did lay harm upon them would be fed to the Tartarus Hounds, Fenrir, Tartarus and Cerberus, three fearsome beasts that even now, guarded the gates to the spirits planes, devouring the unworthy and wretched souls of all races. It had been in that war that the vampires had been almost total wiped out and taken to living under ground in giant crypts and tomes with a warning that any human who woke them would become their meal as a final stand of defiance against the humans who sought to end them.

That was how they had at last come to the topic of just what Cassie and her kin were.

“Cubus.” Cassie said. “Myself, Tara Brown, Hannah Shepard, Miranda Lawson and little Anna are all Succubus, and Alec is an Incubus.”

“Are there more of you?” Tevos asked.

“Not anymore.” Alec said with a cold glare at Udina who had so far been silent. “During the time humans call the Dark Ages, Succubus, Incubus, Wraiths, Magics and all our children, even those who did not share our ‘monster’ blood were killed in masses, accursed of evils and crimes they did not commit by humans of power and money, the innocent and young were burned alive at pyres, hung, tortured, starved or stoned to death. We are the last of our kind.” 

“You say some children did not share your blood… how is that possible?” Valern asked. “genetics are passed down from parents to child during pregnancy, yes?”

“Do all Turian children always share a trait or feature from their parents, be it their skin color, their eye color or how their faces look?” Alec asked. “Do Salarian sons always look like their fathers? Their daughters like their mothers? Do all Asari have the same shade of blue in their skin?” 

“I am not sure I follow.” Tevos said.

“Hypotactically,” Cassie began calmly pouring another cup of tea. “Let us say that a mother and father have a child, both parents are born with biotics, but when the test is done, the child has no biotics at all, not even a hint. Would you still send that child to be trained how to use biotics?”

“No.” Tevos shook her head, “it would be completely pointless. The child would have no place in the training programs.”

“Such common sense was lacking during the Dark Ages.” Alec stated, “Innocent people, including children as young as six years old from all races were gathered up like cattle, trailed in mockeries of a justice system and then hanged, burned alive or killed in some other way for crimes they did not commit. And while humans did catch some evils, they killed far more innocents.” He said. “We went from standing at a steady 9% of the creatures to 3%.”

“Not quite that low.” Cassie said sadly. “There is hope that we will recover our numbers given time, but it is not as easy as it sounds.”

“What do you mean?” Benezia asked.

“Alec’s wife Ellen is human, one of the few who has accepted his heritage and has chosen to stay with him, she carries two children within her and when they are born, a test will be performed to see if either of them carries the ‘Cubus gene. If they do then our numbers rise from six to eight, if not they remain at six until either Miranda, Anna or perhaps Tara, conceive a child.” 

“But there is no guarantee that those children will have this ‘cubus gene either?” Sparatus asked.

“Only one in every five hundred couplings with another of their own kind results in a ‘Cubus child.” Hackett explained, “Alec’s father was an Incubus, but sadly he has since passed away, leaving Alec as the last.”

“And all the Succubus are either related to me or are too old or young to breed.” Alec added, “Tara and my mother stand as elders to our kin, while myself, Hannah and Miranda are still in our Prime years, but Miranda is driven to her work and Hannah is already raining one child and happily married to John. Anna is still just a child, even to our own standers and even if she was of age, it would be her choice, not mine.”

“Your race follows a similar code of leaders as Asari?” Sparatus asked.

“Not entirely.” Cassie said, “The oldest Succubus stands as head of the race, in this case that is me and then the oldest Incubus stands as the advisor and guard to the Succubus, and in this case that is Alec.” 

There was a soft bing and Cassie looked to her terminal for a moment and smiled. “Anna’s gift has arrived.” 

“Wonderful.” Alec smiled in what appeared to be genuine relief. 

“You didn’t tell her John was home from duty, did you?” Hackett asked.

“It’s been twenty months of over the comm line calls and he missed her fifteenth birthday.” Cassie said with a none too pleased glance at Udina. “Heavens know Hannah can’t do anything about it with men like the Ambassador in places of authority. But I will not see another year pass where Anna has to wait for the Alliance to let her father speak with her on her birthday, much less her coming of age.”

“I do not understand why you would allow humanity to stop you.” Sparatus stated evenly. “You clearly have the power to simply take what you want.”

“And be seen as no better than those who first abused the powers we Succubus have.” Alec said, “believe me when I tell you the temptation to use our powers to just take what we want is very strong, but that would make us no better than the people who label us without knowing us and also destroy what little stability of a future our families have left.”

“Hardly any, if one reads this situation right.” Benezia said, having been silent most of this meeting. “You have powers strong enough to kill one of the most feared races in the Terminus system despite your lacking numbers, your home planet is also a prison to an extent, but you chose to make the most of it and protect it from attack even though the humans of your world refuse to accept you. And yet you continue to do them a service where they do you none.” 

“Humanity is in its infancy.” A new voice stated from the door as another woman stepped in, long red hair brushing the floor behind her as she walked her long red dress open at the sides to slow off ivory marks that coiled and swept between multiple tattoos. “And if they continue to pretend that they are alone on this planet’s surface, they are likely to meet a very untimely end, not by our hands but the hands of others whom we are unable to stop.”

“This is Tara Brown. Historian, phycologist, philosopher, doctor, biologist, chemist, floral expert, zoologist and fashionista.” Lady Cassie smiled as the new comer placed a large book on to a shelf and then began to search for another. “She’s finished already?”

“And eager to learn more, our little one is turning into quite the student.” Tara smiled, “She’s asking if she will be allowed to learn under your hands soon as well.” She added, finding the book she needed and carefully pulling it from the shelf to study the cover. “Has the package arrived?” 

“He has,” Alec nodded. “Keep her in the study room as long as you can, Hannah and Ellen are going to set up the surprise.”

“Very good.” Tara nodded and with a nod to Cassie the woman left.

Cassie smiled. “You may close your mouth now Alenko.” She said and the Alliance solider shook himself slightly. “Tara has always been a vision of art.” She chuckled.

“May I ask,” Saren began, “Those marks on your skin, what purpose do they serve?”

“They are a visual show of age and also standing amongst our kin, when we were more numbers, these marks were used to define whose family you were from and who you answered too, as a Succubus ages, her marks become more intricate and detailed, spreading from the heart and eyes to cover her face, chest, arms, legs and back with a mixture of curves, swirls, lines, even feathers and in some cases before the mass murders of our kind the marks became a physical attachment to the body such as small ridges over the eyes, elongated ears, or even whiskers in the hair, but such traits have since died out, now only the delicate and dainty markings remain, as they are easier to hide from human sight or explain away. Tara however refuses to ever hide her marks, as such, she has made them part of her canvas of art work, designing her tattoos to fit around them.” Cassie smiled, “Each tattoo is a memory to her lovers, children and as I recall she also has one for each of the families we lost in mass murders.”

There was a sound from Udina and then without warning the man was lifted from his seat and held in the air by a dark red mist, Alec’s eyes burning a deep blue. “Just give me an excuse Udina and you will fly past that gate faster than you can beg for a soft landing.” he hissed, his own golden marks starting to show through his skin, and even through the plating of his armor.

“Alec.” Cassie soothed, “Let the man speak, he has already been told what will happen if he insults anyone in this house, but it is rude of us to not let him voice his opinion.”

“One insult, and you are out.” Alec remarked and slowly Udina was placed on his own two feet, though the mist gathered around Alec and remained visible.

“The Murders as you call them, were unavoidable.” Udina remarked, adjusting his shirt collar slightly. “Your kind were found to be enslaving men and woman as bed toys and keeping them from their families.”

“Some of us were keepers of large Harems.” Cassie nodded, “But no man or woman in the northern or western lands of the time were there by force, they had all been given a choice and every time they changed their minds, they were given their freedom after they signed their Mistress or Master’s Book.”

“Book?” Mordin asked. “Similar to a ledger?”

Cassie nodded and reached up as if to pull a book from a shelf and pulled a black leather-bound book from thin air, offering it to the Salarian. “Every Succubus and Incubus kept something of a ledger, mostly it was for the names of the Lovers and any children they sired or mothers, a continues and active diary of who we fed from in the old days and a means of tracking down whose blood line a Gene came from in the cases of dormant Cubus becoming active. To become a member of the Harem, a Succubus or Incubus would write the man or woman’s name, age and then have someone sketch out the image of this person on the next page, when and if that person wished to leave the Harem, that person would be given the book and in the presence of their Master or Mistress, and one other Succubus or Incubus, they would write why they were leaving the Harem below the writing of their Master or Mistress and signature the page.”

“That was it?” Sparatus asked. 

“That was it.” Cassie said, “No blood shed, no abuse, no threats, no baited questions, just a civil and polite exchange of words, and sometimes it was all done over a cup of tea.”

“But humanity… its evolution…” Tevos said in some confusion as she looked over the book as well, the writing from Cassie was elegant and beautiful, and the writing of her pervious Harem members was also neat and educated, but the dates meant went as far back as the year 0701…

“Humans did not begin at the top of the food chain, dear.” Cassie explained, “Each race has its own calendar and time system, humans go on a three hundred and sixty four days in a year, twenty four hours in a day and four to five week month cycle. Vampires have no such system as they do not bow to the flow of time. Wraiths live by a slightly different cycle I believe.”

“Sixty days of heat, two days of nothing, sixty days of cold, two days of nothing, repeated over and over again. We can’t define day from night nor can we define seasons, we relay on smell to tell us the time of year and we keep track of time by watching the shadows.” Hackett explained, “Right now the clock reads 14:37pm, it’s actually closer to 14:45pm.”

“Because the sun is eight minutes ahead of where you actually see it.” Mordin asked.

“Yes.” Hackett nodded, “Wraiths and Skin shifters are more attuned to the sunlight and shadows than the other races.”

“And the Cubus?” Sparatus asked.

“We have a ninety one day season for each season and we feel the changes in seasons through our mists and through the subtle changes of our environments, we do not keep to any strict clock, but like Wraiths and Skin walkers we keep to reading the shadows for our time of day or night.” Alec explained, “We also do not celebrate events in the same way humans do, the birth of Crist, to us is a day of great joy, but we do not celebrate with huge parties or events, we gather as a family and enjoy a meal together. Hallows Eve is a night of stories for us, retelling the dark days of our past when we were hunted by humans in the dark ages and killed off like little more than cattle. The end of winter is marked with a night of silence, and the first day of spring is marked with the planting of seeds and the burning of a logs cut from the oldest trees in the regions.”

“Such simple things.” Benezia said, “Why were you considered a threat to the humans if you were not actively involved in violence against them?” she asked as the book was handed back to Lady Cassie.

“As Udina said, there were those amongst us, young and foolish in love, that gathered a large Harem and were not very careful with who they played fancy free with, their carelessness sin matters of the heart led to jealousy and bitterness, and often times in the dark ages, such things led to many lies and whispers spreading fast, far and wide, it would not take long for someone who was popular with many lovers to be considered wicked and cruel, or even bewitchingly handsome or beautiful. Jealousy is an ugly thing and it breeds hatred, over night it seemed many of the careless children of our breed were wiped out by the words of envious or scored lovers.” Cassie sighed sadly. “Maybe if we had acted sooner it would have been different.”

“And what did you do?” Verlan asked.

“The two elders and their trusted guard, consisting of what was then known as the Arch Guard, Sir Goldwing, Lord Fredrickson, Master Rodin, Lady Jasmine, Mistress Rose, Madam Lawson, and my mother Lady Grace Ryder, lashed out with the Mist aura, a similar ‘weapon’ used on the Batarians but much greater, and held humanity still for sixteen days, no harm was done to them and during those days, we Succubus gathered those who wished to stay with us, released those who did not, and we fled to the safety of the elder’s keep, this very same house hold.” Cassie explained, “We created a pact with the Magics, they would make our home invisible to humanity and all its kin, unless they bore the mark of a Cubus Master or Mistress and we would take on a similar approach to humanity as the Vampires, hiding from them. But as years went by, many Succubus were unable to find partners who could breed with them and less of us were born.”

“Until the human year 2000 when a rather foolish young man came to the house and asked to speak with the head of the families about possibly reintegrating the Cubus race back into the human race. However his intentions were none as pure as they seemed and he was soon found out to be after his own personal army of sex slaves and fighters,” Alec said, cracking his knuckles, “He did not stay long.”

“As I recall he tried to sweet talk Tara.” Cassie smiled, “Stupidity lead many others on that same path, until we’d finally had enough, and Tara gave humanity a reminder of just who they were dealing with.”

“What do you mean?”

“Earth suffered drastic and rapid changes in its weather, sea levels, crops growth and other small factors that soon lead to a near crisis.” Hackett explained as several images and information links were shared between the Councilors from his omni tool. “Humans were forced to remember that despite their frail and weak appearance, Succubus Mists do not weaken as they age. Tara’s family has always been closely tied to the earth’s natural weather and climate and so, she chose to use that gift and make Earth her weapon, making the ground infertile, rains came down in torrents, heat waves struck suddenly, tornados and hurricanes were suddenly constant threats, earthquakes, eruptions, avalanches, landslides, melt waters and other such events began to happen daily. Eventually Humanity realized its mistakes in insulting the cubus race and the Alliance, still in its infancy at the time, came to my people for help in trying to fix the problem rather than make it worse.” He explained.

“You had history with them?” Sparatus asked.

“I was the ex-husband of one of them.” Hackett smiled looking at Cassie. “The good old days.”

Cassie smiled, “You had a charm to you, but sadly our time came and went beautifully and peacefully, to this day, our son was the most precious gift you gave me.” She said casting a glance at a small photo on her desk. “But yes, it was Hackett who came to us with the Alliance Board members and after a very long talk between myself, Alec, Tara and young Hannah, we agreed that the Cubus race would reintegrate with humanity, but under rules and strict laws.”

“And those laws were?”

Cassie smiled, “Perhaps that is a question best answered by our youngest Succubus, she is currently studying to try and find a way to amend them.” She offered.

“It will not happen. The laws were set for a reason, and you agreed to them.” Udina said.

“Because we did not seek to leave earth and travel the stars,” Alec stated, “Anna is of age to join the alliance as her father and mother before did yet instead of being welcomed as other cadets have been, she has been shunned and out cast, unable to even partake in ANY of the training beyond basic. Discriminated against because she is not human and yet, beyond the earth as proved in this very room, there are none human races who have allowed humanity to become part of its communities and societies.”

“And humanity refuses to share this?” Tevos asked.

“Not all of humanity is against the Cubus.” Anderson said, finally speaking up in the meeting. “Some of us want to allow the Cubus the chance to explore the stars beyond earth, with so few of them left it is only fair that we allow them the freedom to choose where and how they live, as long as the rules they live by here are still followed.”

“And they will be, Anna has sworn to that as have we all.” Alec said, “the only problem is that men like Udina refuse to even grant Anna the chance to put her case to the Alliance or the Sol’s board.”

“Why?” Verlan questioned as he looked at Udina.

“Because they fear that if my daughter leaves Earth, she will somehow seduce the three of you and make you turn your fleets and powers on them.” John Shepard said as he came in to the room, dressed in his Alliance blues and meddles as he swept his hair back from his face. “Ma’am, sirs. Udina.” He greeted.

“Come in John,” Cassie smiled, and the man relaxed approaching her and placed a small box down on her desk. “A gift? Really John?”

“You have kept my girl safe, I owe you more than I can ever give, but at least this can show some of my gratitude.” He said. 

Cassie smiled and opened the small box to find a beautiful rough emerald within, “Another for my collection.” She nodded.

“As long as it’s not another damn pen.” Alec said, taking a rectangular box that john offered him and then chuckled, showing a miniature Asari blade. “You’ve been talking with Ellen then?”

“She said you were opening letters with a kitchen knife, that one will at least cut the paper open and doubles as a deadly weapon.” John smiled. “Not that you need one, but now you’ll hopeful stop misplacing the carving knife. Sharp blades plus children is not a good combination.” 

“You’d know.” Alec chuckled, neatly pacing the mini blade into his armor. “Thank you.”

“Darling, how many meals am I cooking?” Ellen Ryder’s voice suddenly asked.

Lady Cassie turned to the Council, “Would you care to join us for dinner?” she asked. “Ellen can prepare Dextro meals.”

~~~

Everyone but Udina chose to stay for dinner, and while waiting for it to be prepared, Lady Cassie allowed the Council to wonder her home and introduced them to Navi, the house’s V.I system, a basic design, but unlike the Citadel’s Avina system, who took the shape of an Asari, Navi was a small floating ball with an round screen that projected a pair of digital eyes, or a simple greeting or answer to a question.

Navi was Hannah’s invention, a means of helping her remember her schedule and also a play mate for Anna when she had been a small child, learning to count and different colors, now Navi served as a house hold assistant and general help about the house kind of V.I.

Sparatus was somewhat surprised to find that the house also a large lower level below the ground that had been converted into a gym, swimming pool and indoor training area for combat. That was where the Council met Hannah Shepard, dressed in her Admiral’s uniform with her black hair tied back in a neat bun as she test fired a new pistol with her husband, like Cassie and Tara, her skin marks were elegant and detailed, meaning that she was around the same age if only a little younger than Cassie and Tara, but in the same age bracket as Alec. 

Miranda Lawson was found tucked away in a privet laboratory, studying the effects of neurotoxins on cells and carefully making notes of her findings. She was just a little younger than the others, her red markings were not as widely spread as Hannah’s and Alec, but she was not as young as Anna, who’s skin marks had not yet begun to show through and according to Cassie would not show until she turned sixteen and was given her first drink of Succubus brewed wine. Speaking of Anna, the child Succubus had been in the middle of an art lesson, carefully sketching out a beautiful scenic view of a lake when she had been found in the well-equipped study room. She was polite, quite and helpful, though she had some sadness to her when ‘Grandpa’ Hackett explained Commander Shepard was not yet home from leave and he was still waiting for the conformation papers.

Unlike her parents, Anna had a head of white hair and her eyes burned with a brilliant green light that contrasted her mother’s own light brown and her father’s dull green and unlike her fellow Succubus, Anna did not wear a dress or uniform, instead she wore a worn pair of jeans and a long sleeved shirt, when asked why she explained it was tradition for young Succubus who were not of age to cover their whole bodies until they turned sixteen and their skin marks came through.

“Dinner is being served.” Navi stated, and Hackett lead them to the dinning room while Tara kept Anna back for just a few minutes.

“How long has it been since she saw her father?” Tevos asked quietly so as not to ruin the surprise.

“He was drafted for a mission twenty months ago it was meant to be a short mission, a quick trip to Palaven with some cadets to assist with battle training, but he hasn’t been home since, getting dragged into other jobs and missions.” Hackett explained, “Anna would never ask for someone to act on her behalf but until she’s sixteen, she can’t approach the Alliance board on her own and while she knows I’d stand with her, she refuses to ask just incase someone tries to say she’s abusing the ‘relationship’ I had with Cassie, even though that ended some five centuries ago.”

“Four centuries dear,” Cassie corrected from her place at the head of the table, a smile on her face as Anna stepped into the room and then-

“DAD!” 

Hackett stepped aside with ease as Anna raced past him and all but threw herself into the waiting arms of her father, clinging tightly to his neck as he swung her around. “I’m home.” The commander smiled. 

“You said you were still on the Citadel!” Anna accused though there were tears of joy in her eyes.

“Did I? Well, I guess I may have fibbed just a little bit.” John smiled. “Grandma Cassie made the Alliance rush my papers,” he admitted as he set Anna on her own two feet.

“Thank you, Grandma Cassie,” Anna smiled and moved to hug the elder woman, though Sparatus noticed she dropped to her knees and hugged the woman about the waist rather than the shoulders as he had seen some humans do.

“Come now, the food with go cold if we do not eat soon.” Cassie smiled fondly, gently petting Anna’s hair before gently shooing her to her chair.

Ellen had prepared a vast meal for everyone; several meat joints and sides covered the large table and there were plenty of dextro friendly foods as well as human dishes and some that Sparatus had never seen before.

“Succubus diets are very different from humans, though they can consume all kinds of foods, even some that are toxic to humans.” Anderson explained. “At least once they’re skin marks shine through.”

“Human foods taste really odd to me though.” Anna said, carving three slices of beef from a joint, keeping one for herself and passing the other two over to Ellen in exchange for the bowl of peas. “Vegetables and fruits have very weak flavors, but meats like Fish, beef, pork and chicken have a stronger after taste to them, mashed and boiled potatoes are just bland.”

“And roast ones?” Anderson asked noticing Anna had several roasted potatoes on her plate.

“Those have a nice flavor, kinda sweet and they have a little crunch to their texture.” Anna smiled. “Ellen makes the best food.”

“And that my dear is why you get the largest slice of cake for your desert.” Ellen smiled from her seat beside Alec.

“There’s cake?” Anna asked.

“Triple layer.” Ellen nodded and the younger woman smiled brightly.

“Would it be rude to speak more about what it was you did to the Batarians while at the dinner table?” Saren asked.

“Not at all.” Cassie said, “I had thought you’d have all been asking about that when you first arrived to be total honest,” she added, carefully pouring some gravy over her mashed potatoes.

“We did not wish to seem rude.” Sparatus admitted, “It is not often another race is as hospitable or as open with their history as you have been.”

“Cubus as a whole do not have any concept of shyness about our attraction or lack of there for to others. If people want to know more about us, they can come and asked us any question they like,” Tara stated from her place, carefully adding a dusting of salt to her meal. “We older Cubus have absolutely no shame and no filters for our thoughts, if we do not like the way something is done, we speak up, if we find someone attractive, we flirt and if we want things to move to a greater level of affection, such as dating or even intimacy on any level, we make sure that we tell them as politely and as privately as possible so as to avoid any embarrassment on their part. If we don’t like a person, we avoid them where and when possible.”

“And when that person is Udina?” 

“We try very, very hard not to simply snuff him out like the wretch he is and wait for the day he is either assassinated or someone higher up the chain fires him.” Hannah said. “Carrots Anna?”

“No thank you.” Anna declined. “How did Udina even get to be an Ambassador anyway? I thought you had to be polite and punctual to get a job as a representative of people and he is neither.” She added.

“A lot of political talk and a lot of money.” John said.

“Translation; he slept with someone’s daughter or son to get the job.” Anna said.

Had Sparatus had a mouth full of water, he would have likely done a spit take in the same way Alenko so very nearly did at the blunt and apparent blatant comment. “As I said,” Tara smiled, lightly petting Anna’s hair. “No filters.”

“Clearly.” Anderson chuckled. “And while Udina would deny such an accusation, he was accused of foul play when he was named ambassador over all others who were far more preferable to the job, if only because they would have shown that humanity is willing to learn and grow slowly, rather than rushing around like power crazed fools.” 

“Why is he so instant on humans joining the council anyway?” Anna asked, “it doesn’t sound like a very exciting job and the paper work must be endless.”

“You wouldn’t seek the same as Humanity if you were made part of the Alliance?” Verlan asked in some surprise. 

“What’s in the job for me? A big office, a fancy title and a few public appearances, beyond that I’m just a glorified go between for other races and my own. No offence but that just sounds like a very boring job.” Anna stated. “I’d rather be out exploring or researching. Heck just finding a decent planet with good views to paint would suit me fine.” 

“That is all you would do?” Saren asked.

“What else IS there to do?” Anna asked back. “Humanity won’t let me pilot a ship, they won’t let me train as a solider, I can’t Mist to places I haven’t seen or been shown before, plus its rude to just pop into existence on someone else’s home world, so visiting them would be a no go unless I’m invited and I really don’t fancy Merc work, so what else is there to do beside go out and see the natural sights from planets and space rocks?” 

“Darling you have many millennia ahead of you.” Cassie smiled softly. “You’ll find something to do.”

“You’re head of the family, Uncle Alec’s an N7 and inventor, both my parents are military, Aunt Tara’s a jack of all trades, Aunt Ellen’s a mother too be and Miranda’s a scientist. I think we have all bases covered.” Anna said.

“You wouldn’t request to visit the home worlds of others?” Tevos asked.

“Cubus law states we are forbidden from entering or visiting the homes of others without first being invited or summand, its considered a sign of poor upbringing and ill intent to just show up at the door of someone’s home.” Alec stated, “We are only excused from this law when and only when we are acting in defense of children and or elders in danger. Or if we ourselves are in danger and need a safe place to recover.”

“Must you be invited every time you wish to go somewhere?” Benezia asked.

“No, once we are permitted to enter or visit a place we may come and go freely, unless asked not to or in some cases, if we are forbade from entering by a barrier of magic origins.” Anna said.

“And how does one summon a Succubus or Incubus?”

“Depends on what you want them for,” Anna admitted, “for those seeking a ‘perfect bed partner’, the summoning if usually done by burning the flower that represents the Succubus or the card that represents the Incubus, and also offering up something that would ‘attract’ the Cubus’ attention. A rare jewel, a very expensive bottle of wine or other strong beverage, sometimes real gold and silver, so on and so forth. If you wanted them to act as a over seer to witness the signing of the books or other such events, lighting a candle and burning a few drops of your own blood while you call out the name of the cubus you seek or traveling to their home and bringing a gift, like a new dress or suit, or even a pet was considered payment for such a summoning.” 

“And you answered these summoning’s without knowing who or what you were going into?” Benezia asked. “Sounds very dangerous.” 

“Don’t blink.” Cassie smiled and Anna chuckled as her mother, Aunt Tara and Uncle Alec vanished and then reappeared in each other’s’ seats then moved again, and reappearing in their own seats. “Cubus has a very good sense of where home and safety is in regards to their location at all time. Very young Cubus in particularly, such as Anna, have a very strong link to their home and thus, in times of danger or when they feel threatened, they can teleport themselves away.”

“Back in the dark ages, there was no safe place to go, as humans were raiding homes, castles, fortresses and strong holds with magic items that showed the auras of none humans and those born of them.” Cassie said, “We had no choice but to travel to the Sanctuary of the Skin shifters and hide with them, but the barrier the Wraiths used blocked our teleportation abilities. For that reason, the second Cubus law was made and we were gifted a blessing by the Magics.”

“And that was?” Sparatus asked.

“Navi please uncover the Viewing Shard.” Cassie requested and there was a soft click in response before the little bot flew towards the wall and used its small body to push a curtain aside to show several hovering shards of what looked like glass, the largest of which floated forwards and hovered before Cassie. “This is a Viewing Shard, the magics created them to insure that our Law would always be justified. This Law states that Cubus may refuse to answer a summons even if the summoning is for them specifically.”

“When summoned, a Cubus can look into these shards and see the person they are being called by, sometimes, the summoning is a young boy or girl, looking for a ‘fun night’ and they are often ignored as they are sometimes too young for such things, other times it’s a man or woman like those who share Udina’s view of us, trying to lure us out and then claim rape, which is impossible since Cubus CAN’T rape people who are unwilling without harming themselves, this shards can also remember and repeat a summon if needed to show the true intentions of the summoning party.” Anna said.

“You can be hurt if you rape someone?” Benezia asked in some confusion.

“Cubus feed on energies and desires, the feeding is harmless to all parties that are willing, the mist you saw bring down the Batarians is also our means of feeding, though they were not fed upon the concept is the same.” Anna explained, “The mist comes out during intimacy or even during a casual moment like this and is inhaled or absorbed by the skin in a small amount and then expelled the same way, bringing with it any excess energy it finds and feeds it to the Cubus. Admittedly sexual energy is the most valuable to us as it contains all most everything we need in regards to portions and nutrients but it is not the only energy that feeds us, we can also feed on over whelming emotional stresses, such as anger, sadness, anxiety, paranoia and such, and we can also feed on immense joy, such as the happiness felt when a child is born or during weddings, birthdays and anniversaries, we can also feed on affection, though that to us is more like a sugary treat, much like candy floss or fizzy colas.” She added. “But this is only if both parties are willing to consent.”

“Why?” Saren asked.

“Succubus are at their most vulnerable when feeding.” Anna said.

“Anna.” Miranda hissed.

“If we are to be given a chance to leave earth, we do not keep information hidden as the humans did.” Anna said, “You may not want to leave Earth and see the stars, but I do.”

“Let her speak Miranda.” Cassie soothed softly. “We agreed to this as a group before the Batarian attack, if you have changed your mind, you are free to leave the dinner table and exclude yourself from this meeting.”

Miranda seemed torn for a moment, but sighed and resumed eating her meal.

“Succubus are at their most vulnerable when feeding.” Anna repeated, “To feed, we expel our mist, and send it into our partner, but this in effect is the same as removing armor in the middle of a fire fight and standing up right when the snipers are looking for you. We lose all protection when feeding because the mist is no longer around our bodies, if someone tried to kill us, that would be their moment. Without the mist surrounding us, we are effectively blind to dangers.” 

“How does this mist work?” Mordin asked. “Seems natural, mindless yet, serves the will of Cubus, very fascinating.”

Anna finished swallowing her mouthful of water and smiled. “You have weapons on you, yes?” She asked, setting her knife and fork down for a moment.

“We do.” Benezia nodded.

“Good, do not tell me what you have and do not touch them.” Anna said and brought her hands together as if to pray, then slowly pulled her palms apart to show a bright green mist forming, this mist slowly coiled and pulsed around her hands, up her arms and then like small wave on water, it washed over the table and began to swirl around Benezia, Mordin and Saren. It was a strange sensation, like being tickled by water or a cool breeze that you hardly noticed if you weren’t paying attention, but that was it, no unpleasantness, no stinging, no loss of feeling and no pressure. 

“Saren has a shot gun with extra ammo, two pistols, one rifle and assorted clips, Matriach Benezia has an Asari sword, pistol and spare clips, heavily reliant on Biotics, she also has a smaller knife just in case, Mordin has a shot gun spare ammo, a pistol and a hand gun with assorted ammo and a pocket full of different needles and liquids none of them harmful to cubus but deadly to humans. Everyone has a few grenades and Saren has metal guards over his talons even under the gloves.” Anna listed off as the mist pulled away and slowly vanished back into her palms.

Alec pushed a full plate of food towards her and smiled as she immediately began to eat everything on that plate as if she hadn’t already eaten a whole meal before. “Was she correct?” he asked.

“How did she know?” Benezia asked in amazement.

“The mist is an extension of ourselves.” Tara smiled, “Even now, though you can not see it, the mist is present, a silent and unseen shadow that tells us through vibration, scent and taste, what is around us. For Anna, the mist is currently internal and only comes out when she has need of it, for the rest of us, it is external and only visible is we allow it to be, as we are currently in no danger the mist is only spread to the boundary of our property some twenty miles all around.”

“How far can you reach?” 

“If ever the need came to be, I could expel my mist as far as the planet Saturn without strain, but if I was to truly reach out, I could blanket the entire solar system and possibly reach midway into the surrounding star clusters.” Cassie said, “Tara would reach just about the same, Alec, Hannah and Miranda only just reaching the outer limits of this cluster.”

“And you?” Sparatus asked Anna as she finished her second meal and the largest cake slice she had been promised.

“No idea, until I have my first glass of Cubus wine, I can’t see beyond the reach of my home.” Anna admitted, “Cubus don’t have the ability to feed or even use their mists until they are ten years old, and even then all abilities we can use are primarily for running away and hiding, we can train to fight, but only after our first drink do we gain the ability to use our mist as a weapon the way it was used against the Batarians.”

“It has always been that way.” Cassie sighed, “Before Cubus became a successful race, we were hunted and killed for our mists by the now extinct race of Vulpine. Fox like demons that stole our mists and cooked our hearts for their children’s meals, thankfully for us they made themselves enemies of the skin shifters and were long ago wiped out. But Cubus as a race have not yet been able to break from the fear of them or their attacks on our children.”

“Vulpine and their kind may no longer be a threat to us, but there are others who can still do us harm.” Hannah went on. “Humanity proved that.” She added as John and Alec began to clear away the used plates and wrap what little uneaten foods were left.

“I must ask, and I mean no offence in my words,” Sparatus said, looking at Lady Cassie, “But it seems you have something of a system in this house hold, you share the duties yet, never once has anyone had to ask or speak when they need aid and everyone is aware of some task that they are to fore fill.”

“You wonder if there is some kind of telepathy between us?” Cassie asked with a knowing smile. “It is a mental link, but unlike the telepathy of others and the sharing of minds the Asari have.”

“Then what is it?” 

“We have no name for it, but the Wraiths have dubbed it the ‘Cu’ Harmony’, we speak to one another through emotions and feelings on a higher level than mental or physical contact, a bond that is so deep and so primal to our kind that we believe it has been active since our tiny beginnings way back in the waters of Pangea.”

“Your race is as old as the first continent of Earth?” Benezia asked.

“Older.” Tara chuckled, “We came from the same genetic ancestors as the Sirens, Banshees, Harpies and true Merfolk.” 

Anna chuckled, “Uncle Anderson I think your guard is broken.” She said and Anderson sighed reaching over and lightly punching Alenko in the shoulder, breaking him from his apparent trance as he started at Tara.

“Do not stare at a lady Alenko, its rude.” The captain scolded.

Tara chuckled, “Cute as you are sweetie, you’re too young for me and not my type. Now, since dinner is done, it is the perfect time to have our little Anna dressed up for her coming of age.” She added.

Anna slumped in her seat, “Not again…”

“You simply must wear a dress dear.” Tara smiled brightly, “It’s a tradition.”

“But the fancy ones you show me don’t suit me.” Anna sighed, “they’re too tight, too big or too puffy, frilly and girly.”

John chuckled then ducked behind Alec as Hannah level a mocking glare at him. “She gets it from you,” the woman said.

“Miranda had a no dress phase too.” Cassie smiled. “And as I recall she has yet to grow out of it.”

“Grandma Cassie do I HAVE to wear a fancy dress?” Anna asked.

“It doesn’t have to be fancy, just as long as the skirt is floor length, the sleeves cover to your wrists or longer ad no one can see below the breast bone, you’ll be decent. But it must have at least some sparkle and a little frill.” The older woman smiled. “And it must be pale in color.”

“Do we have anything like that in our wardrobes?” Tara asked. 

Cassie smiled and turned to Anna. “I think I know just the dress for you my dear.” She assured, “Tara I leave you in charge until we are prepared.” She added and together with Anna the two vanished into one of the hall ways.

“She spoils her.” Miranda sighed.

“Do you expect any less?” Tara asked, “We are a dying race Miranda, we all know it and if the children in Ellen’s womb do not carry the gene, the future of our race lies upon Anna’s shoulders alone.”

“What do you mean? Surely you can all have children of your own?”

“It is not as simple as that.” Tara explained, “As you see, Alenko has trouble keeping his eyes to himself, but it takes more than lust and wanting school boys to create a child, and while humans may enjoy fertility in vast numbers and need only a few goes at each other in the sheets, a Cubus needs certain things to be in place and certain levels of trust to have been reached to even BEGIN the breeding attempts.”

“John and I were a lucky pair. Anna was conceived after only one breeding cycle,” Hannah said, “But Alec and Ellen… It took them sixteen years for Ellen to conceive their children, sixteen breeding cycles, each one lasting up to forty to fifty days at a time,” she shuddered, “It leaves all Cubus weak and unable to defend themselves, as the mist is concentrated on feeding us and trying to gather enough energy and genetic details from both parties to create a new life and then sustain that life until the child is at least two weeks of age in the mother’s womb. The demand on the body of both parties can be fatal if the right precautions are not taken, even if both parties are Cubus, Succubus must sleep to rest their Mists, and Incubus must drink water constantly or they risk literally cooking themselves to death with the heat they suffer…”

“And you when through this willingly?” Sparatus asked looking at John. 

“Older Cubus have the ability to control themselves and give their human partners chance to rest, plus, life in the military teaches you to survive on a few minutes of sleep here and there and thankfully, the others were on hand to keep the food coming and the water flowing.” John said, “Its painful to them, but no where near as bad as it can be if they do not have a partner during the breeding cycle.” 

“How painful?”

“Turians have Ruts yes?” Miranda asked and when she got a nod she continued, “Imagine that kind of heat, but triple the length, quadruple the need and desires to claim someone, and then imagine that you were trapped in a small box, just big enough for you to sit or kneel in, unable to do anything to release all that built up need. You may have half of what we suffer without a mate.”

“Spirits.” Sparatus breathed, Rut was painful even WITH a mate, but without a mate for for even longer than a few days at a time… how did they cope with such pains?

“We each have our ways of coping with the desires our cycles bring us, Cassie and I are old enough to endure without a mate now, Hannah and Alec had partners, only Miranda and Anna are without though Miranda’s work in the laboratory seem sto keep her somewhat stable, and Jacob is a good man.” 

“It is a mutual understanding.” Miranda huffed.

“Wasn’t what I heard last week.” Tara teased lightly, “Now, any more questions?” she asked of the Council.

~~~

Anna’s dress had been a simple, but beautiful black turtle necked design with long sleeves and a long lose hung skirt that only just brushed the floor there were small frills along the hem line and decorating the neck line and cuffs and fixed into the neck piece was a glass diamond, giving the dress just a little bit of sparkle. The sight had brought a tear to Hannah’s eyes and Tara had been lost for words, apparently such a feat was rare and after insuring the dress would sit well and couldn’t catch on anything during her coming of age, Lady Cassie had extended an invitation to the Council to witness the event for themselves if three weeks’ time.

The Salarians and Asari had agreed instantly, but Sparatus had said he’d have to think on it, as it was all so very much to take in at once and there was still much to talk about to learn, but it was impossible to learn everything in just one day and so Lady Cassie, Hannah and Alec had offered the Council their personal communication links as they were the ones most often in contact with the Citadel and the current leader of the Cubus race.

It was late in the evening when the Council finally bid good evening and good bye to the Cubus and climbed aboard their shuttle to return home with Hackett and Anderson, Hackett having resumed his human appearance after bidding good bye to the elder Succubus and offered Anna a replica star ship model as an early birthday gift. They had met Udina upon their return to the Citadel, but since no one seemed to recall Hackett’s true form the papers Udina had demanded be signed by everyone were quickly placed in the trash compactors or folded into paper cranes.

Now came the true work.

Sparatus sat at his desk, thinking carefully over the whole event very carefully, looking over the information he had been given and te details he knew to be true thanks to Saren’s complete report on the day’s events and the evidence that supported the truthfulness of the Cubus Race. Somehow, Councilor Sparatus had to report his findings to the Primarch and his fellow high ranked Turians and at the same time not sound like a total loon, just as he knew Tevos and Valern would be doing right now, he was thinking very carefully over how he could explain the whole event in a way that didn’t paint the Cubus as a slave to the humans and also put forwards the unspoken plight of their race to his people.

He didn’t know how or when the encrypted key card had been so carefully placed inside his pocket, but it seemed Anna wanted the Councilor to understand why Udina had been so scornful towards her kin and provided him and his fellow Councilors with it and through images, documents and video clips, the Council had watched the Udina family and others who didn’t trust the Cubus bitterly and purposeful block the Cubus at every turn they took or made to try and speak with the Alliance or Sol Board regarding leaving the Earth.

How best to report all of this though? He couldn’t speak casually about the event, not to his high up, spirits they would think he was mad once they looked up the human definition of a Cubus, no, he had to do this carefully, slowly and with delicate care to insure he did not color the views of others with his own personal thoughts of these Cubus. 

They were deadly beings, capable of killing without physically being next to or within range of someone, but it was their will that controlled the death rate, they were weak when attacking and feeding, yet they needed consent to feed without harming themselves, they had no issue telling you one way or another if they liked or disliked you and they were overwhelmingly confident in their own right and despite their clear ability to wipe every other race out, they chose not to involve themselves in such affairs, they refused to partake in the First Contact War, they chose to protect Earth because it was their home, not because it was their duty.

They were a strange race, stranger than he had ever known before, and yet, they seemed content with the simplest of things, a home, family, safely, good health and good company. They obeyed laws that were not their own even though they could just take what they wanted. Even Anna, who dreamed of traveling the stars, waited and followed the proper channels to try and put her case to the people who had made Earth a prison to her even before her birth. He doubted many others would be so patient and calm about such a small and easily granted request, but then again, perhaps that was where to start with his report, the simplest of requests from a child who had been barred from following the steps of her parents?

It was better than nothing.


	3. Coming of Age and a Loss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anna's coming of age is witnessed by the high ups of the Council races and also of ruling bodies of other none human races. And there is a terrible loss in the Ryder family.

Chapter 3

After a very long, very detailed and very factual conversation with the Primarch, Pallin and several other high ranked Turian generals, Councilor Sparatus had agreed to tag along to the coming of age of Anna, and was only slightly surprised when Lady Cassie responded and made it clear that he was welcome to extend that invitation to others, as both Tevos and Valern had asked if they could bring along more than just one friend.

Udina had become overly paranoid, his office treble locked when he wasn’t in and his personal room on the Citadel now had an armed guard at both doors. Apparently, the Cubus visit had scared the man into what Hackett called old habits.

Needless to say, given that the paper work to get there was suddenly condensed into one small five page document that could be read and signed in a matter of minutes did make Anderson smile like a child at Christmas time. Udina had not, been invited and apparently there had since been a restraining order placed on the man that kept him at a constant distance from the Cubus until this whole affair was over after it was found he had been sending threatening E-mails to them and had been deliberately withholding documents letters and messages to the Alliance and Sol’s Board about alterations to the Laws.

It also explained why Udina was suddenly so very willing to say yes to a lot of things he would have normally said no too.

Navi greeted them at the door, her small body looking to have been recently polished up and cleaned to the point she sparkled even as she led them to the garden, where Lady Cassie was walking slowly around the many rose bushes, Alec at her side while Tara carefully pruned and weeded the tulip patch. Hackett was already there, once again on his true form, but he was not the only one there, several other Wraiths had come this time and were chatting away with Ellen and John while a frail old man, older than Lady Cassie, was slowly pushed along side her in a wheel chair by a young boy.

There was also a very tall gentleman dressed in a fine suit and tie, quietly talking with Miranda who was going from table to table, checking the food and drink were still plentiful for all races. 

“Councilor.” A Familiar voice greeted and Sparatus blinked as Castis Vakarian stepped forwards from the crowd, his daughter at his side while her mother and brother stood talking to Ellen Ryder.

“Vakarian, what are you doing here?”

“Alec and I have a history; his wife was a huge help with designing my son’s optical equipment and she has been helping Solana with her studies of human languages and speech.” The C-Sec officer explained, “I see you brought everyone.” He added with a nod to where the Generals were mixing with the Wraiths and Vampires, going over some battle plans or others from way back in the old Human days. 

“Well, this is not something that is easy to explain without some visual assistance.” The Councilor said, “I was sure my report must have read like some kind of madness when they first read it.”

Castis chuckled. “It was not so hard to believe after witnessing what they can do.” The old officer assured.

“I doubt that was believed until after they saw the footage from Saren confirming the report was true.” The councilor huffed. “Do you know everyone here?” he asked.

“Most of them.” Castis nodded, giving his superior the run down of who was who.

The leaders of the Skin Shifters, Holly and Benjamin were currently talking with the Asari who had come, demonstrating a few small abilities they had along with the Magic ‘Mastery’ so called because the current ruling members were soon to be changed in a yearly vote of their people, this stopped anyone becoming comfortable with the place of authority and also allowed everyone equal chance to lead. The Vampires were represented by six ambassadors, one from each of the elder families and one ‘Count’ of the Slumbering Vampires who were still settled in their tomes and crypts.

Anna herself was apparently under the careful watch of her mother until all the guests had arrived. 

“The rite of a Cubus is a momentous occasion to them, one that is celebrated by Wraiths, Vampires, Skin Shifters and Magics, some consider it an omen of good luck and celebrating the coming of age can bring good luck for expectant mothers.” Castis explained, smiling as Solana tugged his hand and pointed out Hannah and Anna as they came out of the house. “The main event is about to start.” 

Lady Cassie smiled and moved away from the gathering of people and took a place under a large arch way of roses and climbing vines, seeing this everyone’s conversations grew to a close and all attention fell on the elder Succubus as Tara came to hand the older woman a large goblet as her fellow Succubus gathered, Hannah, Alec and Miranda each holding their own goblet. 

“Friends, old and new,” Cassie began as those gathered settled into chairs or on to the floor. “It has been centuries since last we Cubus were able to host such an event as this, for as you know our numbers are fewer than they have ever been. But tonight, that changes my friends, tonight we welcome the youngest of our kin to our table and accept her as our Equal, our sister and our future in her hands, may the stars bid it so. Tonight, we witness the rite of Anna Shepard.”

There was a round of cheered and claps from the gathered crowd. 

“Anna.” Cassie called softly and the younger woman came forward, slowly slipping down to one knee as her elder gently petted her hair. “As the youngest of our Kin, it has been our duty and honor to keep you safe from harm, teach you our ways and hopefully by now, you have learnt all you can from us that you may be successful in whatever future you chose to take from this point on.” She bid as Tara brought out a large bottle of vibrant yellow liquid. “Stand and create your goblet.”

Anna rose and brought her hands up, forming a frosted cup in her palms and then slowly shaping a twisted stem and then a snow flame like foot from her mist, it took a few minutes but then at last the goblet took a solid form and gave a very soft but pleasing whine as it was held in Anna’s hand. Tara nodded and carefully poured the yellow liquid into the goblet until it was full and then filled Cassie’s goblet, her own, Hannah’s, Alec’s and then Miranda’s. 

“As some of you know, the change can provoke a surge of our mists, for this reason, we ask that everyone remain as still as possible until Anna’s rite is over.”

There was a soft mumble of agreement and Cassie turned to Anna with a small smile as the younger woman nodded and brought the goblet to her lips.

The mist slowly spilled from her body, swirling slowly clockwise around her body, slowly coiling up from Anna’s feet, as she continued to drink the liquid the mist darkened and swirled faster until she was completely cocooned inside the brilliant shell of colors, then at last the mist fell open like a blooming flower and the once black turtle necked dress was now totally different in design and color. 

It was a deep purple color now, the frill was gone completely, and the skirt had become slit up the sides and front, and the sleeves were gone completely leaving the dress strapless and low cut, showing off the oddly pale ivory tint to her skin and then, like some kind of living art, green skin marks began to appear, slowly curling and circling around her body, sweeping up the outside, from and back of her legs, their spiraling around her ankles and then interwove themselves around her waist and lower back, circling and curling around her spine and up around her stomach and torso then sweeping over her shoulders and down her arms to the very tips of her fingers, the skin marks then gently swirled around her neck like a choker and then climbed up her face, framing her lips and eyes in green leaves and petal like shapes for a few moments.

Anna finished the liquid in her goblet and Cassie took it before it could slip from her fingers as Anna’s mist suddenly surged and spread wide around her, swiftly covering the garden and ground, the house and then seemed to vanish. 

“What-?” 

“Her mist is reaching out to find its limit.” Hackett explained softly in answer to Tevos’s question, “She’s seeing it happen.” He added when Anna seemed to be in some kind of daze as her skin marks pulse and moved freely around her body.

“Anna?” Cassie asked softly, gently taking the younger Succubus’s hands in her own as Tara took her goblet away. “What can you see?”

“Pluto…” Anna breathed. “I see Pluto…”

“She can reach that far?” Miranda asked in shock.

“She’s a Shepard.” Hannah smiled proudly, “Every daughter has a stronger sight them their mother.” She reminded as Anna at last came out of her daze.

“Steady dear.” Tara soothed as Anna took a moment to catch her breath again while Tara refilled her goblet.

Cassie smiled and took her goblet up once again. “May stars bless your path, may clouds part to grant you passage, let oceans and land treat you well and let nothing of darkness taint your shine.”

“Thank you, Lady Cassie.” Anna nodded.

Sparatus would have been shocked about the finest Turian wines on offer had he not now been made aware that Alec Ryder was a close friend of Castis Vakarian.

Cassie lifted her goblet. “To Anna.”

“To Anna,” the gathering chorused as everyone drank, including Anna though she did not drink as much this time.

“Her skin tone has changed.” Castis said as Alec came over to join them.

“Some Succubus skin’s do have a tint to them, it’s a dormant gene passed along the stronger blood lines to their daughters, the paler skin mimicked a sickly or weak Cubus, making them less of a target to Vulpine.” Alec explained.

“And her marks?” 

“They will retract over the next few hours and settle, what we saw was how her marks will look when and if she reaches a right old age like my mother and Tara.” The Incubus smiled. “But for now, the marks will only cover her back, parts of her hands and the faintest parts of her eyes.”

“An amazing display,” Mordin nodded, “Very pleasing to the eyes, but not harmful despite Mist’s abilities to cause harm. “such mysteries, and such wonder.” He added.

“You make it sound like you wish to study them.” Saren said.

“Would not be opposed to learning more about them. Very interesting race, very rare, exotic even, and so much power and skills, such study would be extensive but very educational.” Mordin nodded. “But would first have to ask if this is possible, so much to learn and so few Cubus left, would not want to be rude.” 

Saren clicked his mandibles, trust a Salarian to want to study something.

“So what happens now?” Tevos asked.

“Well, after the party is over, we will return to our homes and our lives, but for Anna I have a feeling her next stop will be trying to arrange a meeting with the Alliance and Sol Board to see about the possibilities of her leaving Earth and traveling the stars.” Hackett said as he sipped his drink.

“That is all she’d ask?” Benezia asked.

“Its all she’s wanted to do.” Hackett nodded. “She’s seen her father and mother leave to go on mission for months on end, and while she understands that they have a job to do, she herself has never left this house or boundaries. All she knows has been taught to her through her family and those around her, and while it is a vibrant and colorful history of Earth, we can’t teach her about the Council races or other places beyond earth because the Laws that were agreed to forbid the Cubus leaving their home unless they are summoned or permitted to leave. Most of her conversations with the Board thus far have been through e-mail, letter or vid com.” 

“She’s never left this place?” Sparatus asked.

“The consequence was death.” Hannah stated as she passed them, moving to gather a small plate of food. “Anna’s whole life thus far has been spent within this house hold and its grounds, if she left those boundaries without reason or permission, she’d have been killed.”

“Such barbaric ways.”

“Such was Humanities answer to us when we were more.” Hannah said with a shrug, “They misunderstood our kin and misunderstandings lead to mistrust and fear, and fear leads to fights, eventually, fights lead to war and that leads to death. We chose to simply stay where we were safe and get on with our lives as best we could until now.”

“And what would you do if the laws changed?”

“Personally, I would do nothing differently than I do now. I have my home here and I have my husband and child, as long as she is happy and my husband alive, I am happy to remain a rear admiral to the Alliance and serve my next twenty years as I have before.” Hannah said, “Lady Cassie and Tara may ask if they can visit the Citadel, but only to see what all the fuss is about up there before returning here while Miranda may ask to take some samples of plants or soil from another world to study it and Alec may ask for an extended leave so that he is here for his children’s birth. But beyond that, we have nothing to seek outside this place.” 

“You can be happy with so little?” Sparatus asked.

“Why is that so hard to believe?” Hannah asked back. “What more should we want? We have our families, our home, our loved ones and the ability to provide for ourselves, what more do we need?”

The Councilor found he could not find an answer to that.

“Not everyone seeks more than they need in life.” Hannah told him and then smiled as music began to play.

~~~

They made it through the night without having anyone fighting and Lady Cassie offered them all a room and the chance to stay for breakfast the following morning, which was accepted though Sparatus noticed Anna, Garrus, Solana and some other young ones were settling in the living quarters around the large TV screen, likely to chatter and enjoy some privet time as just young kids or watch movies before they fell asleep.

During the night, Sparatus woke periodically and listened, as he knew other Turians did as well, sure enough, he heard several trips to the bath room, someone snoring, and the gentle tones of music then eventually lulled him back to sleep, he didn’t know the house, and thus, he blamed the waking on his subconscious worry of an attack and yet, not once did he hear or sense danger in the house or its grounds.

He woke again early in the morning and heard the sound of someone crying and quietly went to investigate, finding Ellen sat in the kitchen, with Alec and Lady Cassie, the two Cubus looking deeply saddened as Ellen sobbed into her husband’s shoulder, a small data pad laid on the table.

Miranda was sat with her head in her hands shaking and asking ‘why’ over and over again as Tara tried to comfort her, Hannah was brewing tea.

“I’m so, so sorry…” Ellen sobbed. “I’m sorry…”

“Its not your fault.” Alec assured though he sounded equally as sad as his wife.

Anna then came in, tears in her eyes as her mother welcomed her into a warm embrace, soothing her daughter softly as the tears fell.

“Is something wrong, Councilor Sparatus?” Lady Cassie asked softly as she looked to the Turian.

“I heard crying.” He admitted, seeing no reason in lying to the woman who had shown him such honesty. “Something has happened?” he asked.

“They have no heart beat.” Lady Cassie said, showing him the data pad, a medical report from Miranda and Tara after Ellen reported a terrible pain in her stomach at around midnight, and then, shortly after two am, the tiny hearts of the babies inside Ellen’s womb had stopped beating.

“I don’t understand it.” Miranda said, “We did everything right… the scans were clear, they were fine for their two months… they were in the clear and you… you’ve not ingested anything harmful, you have no medical conditions, you’re not effected by the mists… I don’t understand it… why would this happen? Why now? Why?”

“Sometimes it is not meant to be.” Tara said softly, “No matter how hard we try, if the baby is not strong enough, even with all we do to strength it, a Cubus child can fade from the womb.”

“Is this,” Sparatus asked carefully choosing his words. “Common?”

“Common with human Cubus relations, yes.” Hannah nodded, gently swaying her daughter softly left to right. “It’s the risk we run when breeding with none Cubus races… but Humans are the only race we know of besides Wraiths that can sire or mother a child with us.”

Sparatus would have said he understood, but the truth was he didn’t, he didn’t know how hard a blow this must have been to them or how it would feel for Anna, who had only just become of age to stand beside her fellow Cubus to know that she had lost potentially two more of her kin. He excused himself and return to his room, but sleep did not find him again as he lay there, starting to slowly come to terms with just how much of the Cubus future relayed on having children and how difficult it was for them to conceive and then carry a child to term.

They had been denied the chance to expand and grow by Humanity for so long it was now nearly impossible for them to make any move to leave this prison they called home. And yet, they held no grudge, ill-will or desire to bring harm to humanity as a whole and despite their clear and deadly powers, they did not do what he knew many others would have done and lashed out, killing the humans and claiming the world as their own.

There were so many questions he knew he should ask, but how best to ask them and not sound like he was demanding the answers as the humans so clearly did, how best to stay in what appeared to be the good graces of the Cubus and still maintain a professional manner about it all? Or, was that why he struggled to find the answer to how he could approach them? Trying to be professional and proper wasn’t what he needed and instead he should try simply asking them out right? Had Tara not said that the Cubus were open to answer any question?

He would think on it more after talking with his fellow Councilors and respected leaders.

 

The news of the loss spread quickly around the gathered guests and while the Vampires showed little emotion in their faces, they all gave Ellen a small black stone decorated with a white mark upon it, something Hackett explained was a token of safe passage from them for her children’s souls, to pass unharmed and safely into the afterlife. The Skin shifters offered a gentle embrace and gifted Ellen soft blankets and furs that they had been keeping for when the babies were born, and while it seemed they would only be a harsh reminder, Cassie defended the actin by reminding everyone that the Skin Shifters did not believe in death being the end, but merely a chance at rebirth and thus the blankets and pillows would become of use some other time. 

The Magics offered small enchantments of comfort and health for Ellen while Hackett and his fellow Wraiths offered to preform a spirit blessing chant to offer Ellen peace of mind that her children did not suffer or linger in any pains, which Ellen agreed to after calming down from her sobbing. The chant was short, but clearly it held some untold power, as there was no denying the two tiny forms of light that had drifted from Ellen’s body and slowly faded into the warm sunlight of the garden. 

The Cubus themselves chose to wear pale colors, grays, blues and in Alec’s gave a gray band was tied around his upper arm and two small white spots placed over his heart, while one of the vampires carefully tattooed two stars on Tara’s back, where countless others had been placed with loving care.

“How many do you have?” Tevos asked.

“Stars or in total?” Tara asked back.

“Both.” Tevos clarified.

“Seventy-six stars, each one to mark the death of child before their time, since we started life in these grounds.” Tara said, “The rest are memories of my own life, people I knew, people who taught me, my own children and this one,” she said showing Tevos a small fox like shape on the back of her right shoulder. “This one is to remind me that I survived a Vulpine attack.” 

“Sheer damn luck.” The vampire stated as he cleaned his equipment. “Stupid girl ran at the dan thing when it attacked a younger Cubus, nearly got herself killed.” 

“It saved the kid didn’t it?” Tara smiled.

“Bah,” the Vampire huffed shooing Tara away as she adjusted her dress. “Vulpine would have killed you if not for Lady Ryder.”

“And I am forever in her debt for that.” Tara smiled. “Not that I mind, Cassie has been good to me, and she has never asked for anything but my aid and advice. And she gave me the joys of life with a family.” 

“You have none of your own?” Tevos asked.

“My Mother died when I was five years old, I never met my father so I was alone for four years before Cassie saved me from the Vulpine, welcomed me into her home and her family without question, I’ve been with her ever since,” Tara smiled. “We’ve seen generations of humanity rise and fall and watched earth change and shift to accommodate them, we know how they work and how easy it would be to remove them, but to do that would make us no better than the children who caused this whole mess years ago.”

“You’ve thought of it?”

Tara chuckled, “Humanity stole our homes and land, they murdered our children and others who were innocent, and they destroyed the natural beauties of Earth selfishly. It has lead to many arguments amongst those of us who are older than Humanity, but Cassie and some Wraiths always mange to sooth any anger we hold, its why when you were last here I called Humanity infants, that is what they are to us.”

“Make sense too, they break things that are pretty because they think they can make better.” A Skin shifter stated as he walked by, carrying a bag over his shoulder. “We be go leaving now, Lady Brown, we see you when next we see you, yes?” 

“Yes Dom, we’ll see you next time.” Tara smiled offering the Skin shifter a gentle kiss to his forehead. “travel well.”

“And live long.” The skin shifter nodded and have the Asari a polite nod. “Bye-bye.” 

Tara smiled and then sighed, “Well, one joy, followed my sorrow. And Now comes the next step in Anna’s future.”

“What do you mean?” Tevos asked.

“She’s goin to try and change the law that prevents the Cubus leaving earth, in doing so, she will be given the freedom to travel the stars as she wishes and find new scenes and views the paint.” Tara said, “but that can only happen if Humanity allow it.” 

~~~

It truly did not take long for the small matter of changing the laws became the basis of arguments amongst the entire human race, some rallying to allow the Cubus, now on the verge of extinction to leave Earth and see what the rest of the None Human races of Earth had the freedom to see while others, lead by Udina and those like him, fought to keep the Cubus locked up on earth.

Deadly monsters who should be kept locked away until they were no more. Wrongly accused innocents who suffered for the choice made by others years ago. Sex demons who would kill everyone. Healers and supportive souls who could help others work through their troubles and stresses. 

It went back and forth in a seemingly endless circle until Anna stepped up before the Boards and screamed for everyone to shut up and behave like adults, which prompted many in the room to suddenly sit rather straight backed and ridged in their chairs and smooth the wrinkles from their clothes.

“Honestly, this is not a meeting to demand this be done instantly.” Anna scalded, “I hardly even get in the room and already everyone is in an uproar and you haven’t even heard what I am proposing!”

“It is not that the Law change is unacceptable Miss Shepard,” one elderly woman stated from her seat. “It is that if we do allow this, what is to say that the rest of your kin who have not been given the permissions already, such as your mother and Commander Ryder, would not abuse this change for their own gain?”

“Tara Brown is already the lady and mistress of six men, she would not ask for more unless they approached her first. Lady Cassie Ryder is our leader and ha been a Grandmother to me since birth, beyond a visit to the Citadel to see what the fuss is about up there, they wouldn’t much care for anything out of this change other than the rights to visit Alec and his family more freely than they do now. Miranda is a Scientist, she would seek studying martials and she can’t get them via shipments since someone has been claiming that any order we make is to purchase weapons or ingredients and martials to create a weapon that can be used against Humanity.” Anna stated. “Just because Humanity uses its gains from the earth to create weapons does not mean that Cubus follow their path, or have you all forgotten that it was Humans who started both World Wars and humans who so foolishly began the war with the Turians not the other way around.”

There was an uncomfortable silence for a time, and Anna watched the people in the room carefully, some were indifferent, there to simply chose yes or no, others were strongly against all she was trying to do and would fight to the end to see this change denied while the rest, admittedly the largest group were hearing and understanding this argument from her view point and had lived long enough to know that she was not going to abuse the chance to simply visit the stars as her parents did.

There was a loud and clear bleep from the vid comm and all eyes watched as three familiar figures appeared on the channel.

“Councilors?” Hackett asked in some shock.

~ “We understand that this is a human matter.” ~ Councilor Valern said calmly as the three of them stood loosely to attention, ~ “But as a new race wishes to travel the stars, we felt it only right that we also be involve in this meeting, after all, if Miss Shepard is to be granted this chance, she must also be given permission to travel inside Council space and that cannot be given second hand.” ~

Anna blinked in confusion, “Say what now?”

~ “Councilor Valern means that, as your Laws state you must have permission to go somewhere, it would be wise for us to be part of this meeting, as if you are given permission to change the law, you will need the Council’s permission to travel in Council Space,” ~ Councilor Sparatus stated. ~ “However, before we grant that permission, we must have some assurances and further answers to some questions we have from our own people.” ~

“We haven’t agreed if we will accept the change yet.” Someone stated, clearly unhappy that the Councilors had joined the meeting. 

~ “And that is why we are here to state that if the Cubus do wish to visit the Citadel, even if Humanity do not permit the change in law, they are welcome there, whenever they wish it so, under the permission and blessing of the Asari.” ~ Councilor Tevos said.

The resounding up roar, Councilor Sparatus decided, was worth it, just to see the shocked look on Anna’s face and the dumb founded looking on Hackett’s.


	4. Small talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little chatter between the Anna and the Citadel Council that brings some things to light that should have not been known in the Salarians' eyes.

Chapter 4

The change in the Law was simple and had been passed rather quickly after it was discovered that the other Cubus were willing to come to the same meeting as Anna and hear out what the Council had to say about their offer to visit the Citadel as they pleased. 

John Shepard had kept the small apartment on the Citadel he had owned before meeting Hannah and thus, that was chosen to be the meeting place and to save time on the shuttle ride, Captain Anderson preformed a summoning in the apartment kitchen offering a shiny jewel, a package of rare flower seeds, a rare bottle of wine, an ornamental sword, a sample of toxins and a small furred animal he called a hamster, and within minutes the Cubus arrived with John and Ellen.

Anna instantly began to fuss the hamster, smiling brightly it settled in her palm and nibbled on a small biscuit. “Thank you, uncle Anderson.” She smiled, clearly happy with her offering as she petted the fuzzy creature.

“Yes, thank you, Anderson.” Tara smiled inspecting her new seeds, “These will go quite nicely in my garden.” She nodded.

“Honestly, you didn’t have to cut that deeply,” Hannah said as she handed her sword to her husband and gently took the man’s hand in hers, covering the cut in his palm with her own and when she removed her hands the cut was healed with not even a scar to show it was there. “Thank you for the sword though.” She added.

“Wine, really?” Alec asked as his wife sat in a comfortable chair, still dressed in pale colors as he was.

“It’s good for your health and was all I could think of that would be worth your attention.” Anderson sighed smiling. “And it cost me a fair penny too.”

“Oh, cry me a river.” Alec smiled. “Thanks.” He added.

“A beautiful stone indeed,” Cassie said leaning on her cane as she held the stone in her hand, “Thank you Anderson.”

“Yes, yes, Thanks.” Miranda said, already trying to guess what the toxin was as she looked it over in her hands, “Hmmm… what can you do…? Deadly? No, not potent enough, maybe a bigger dose? Hmmmm…”

“Maybe I should have gone for the new microscope.” Anderson said.

“We have several dozen already,” Cassie smiled, “The Council is here yes?”

“In the living room,” Anderson nodded and stepped aside to allow them through.

“You are allowed to keep such an apartment despite your marriage to a Cubus?” Tevos asked as Tara helped Cassie to the seating area and helped her settle in the high back arm chair before seating herself on the sofa with Hannah, Miranda choosing to stand by the window while Alec guided Ellen to another chair, where she could sit comfortably. Anna took a large pillow from under the sofa and used it as a cushion to sit on the floor at her mother’s feet, using a small box Anderson had offered her to place the hamster in with some crumbs and a small bowl of water.

“This apartment belonged to my father, he left it to me after he passed away, before I met Hannah, because of that, everything about this apartment is in my family name ‘Owens’ not my marital name so Udina can’t take it away.” John explained as he filled the large kettle with water and then lit the stove and set a kettle on the rings to heat up. “Drinks?”

“No thank you dear.” Cassie declined smiling softly as she set her cane aside.

“Caramel coffee if you have any dear, if not, tea with one sugar will do nicely.” Tara said.

“Coffee, straight black.” Hannah said.

“Make that two please.” Miranda added as she went back to inspecting her offering.

“Hot coco please, with marshmallows.” Anna requested.

“White tea please John.” Alec nodded.

“Just water please.” Ellen added.

“Anyone else?” John asked as he set the cups out with the requested ingredients. 

“No thank you.” Tevos declined while her fellow councilors shook their heads. “We need only wait for Admiral Hackett to arrive as a witness and we will begin.” 

“You do understand that it will be Anna you have this discussion with, correct?” Cassie asked, “As this was her wish, she is the one who will be making this choice, not us.”

“Very well.” Tevos nodded. “As this is an offer made from my people, it will mostly be my people’s questions that are asked today.” 

“Fair enough,” Anna said, “To be honest I thought all three of you would make it a huge meeting to ask all the questions at once,” She admitted, accepting the large mug of hot coco sprinkled with tiny marshmallows as her father brought a tray of drinks around the room. “Thanks dad.” 

“Not everyone is ready to accept that things can be that simple.” Tevos explained with a small glance to her fellow Councilors. “But my people have no interest in making enemies of those who could be friends.”

“Choose your words carefully,” Anna said, “I may not be a solider like my parents, but I will not be someone’s political pawn or weapon.” Tevos blinked in some confusion. “Everyone has a personal gain when they speak with us, be that educational, political or scientific they always want something out of us, if you have something to say or ask, do it bluntly and without sugar coating it to sound nice.”

Hannah smiled knowingly as Miranda handed Alec a few coins and Sparatus realized that Anna wasn’t as naive as she acted in front of the human board, she may not have left the boundary of her home on earth but that did not mean she had lived a sheltered life. Her family and those around her had come to her and taught her how to live beyond the house she had been trapped in for so long, and now that she was outside that house, she was using their teachings to keep herself safe.

The Asari Councilor had, despite being warned before that it was unwise, underestimated the Cubus child and the Turian Councilor had a gut feeling Anna knew more about her people than she let on.

This was going to be interesting.

Hackett arrived with a polite bow to the Cubus and offered Alec a small brown envelope. “Your leave was granted.” He explained and placed a small rounded orb on to a golden stand on the fire place mantle, making the orb shine and slowly begin to rotate. “This is Admiral Hackett, Wraith Chiften and Ex Husband of Lady Cassandra Ryder, witness to Citadel Council meeting with young Lady Anna Shepard in regard to an informative session to gain better understanding of Cubus intentions should they be permitted to visit the Citadel.” He stated clearly and the orb continued to rotate slowly. 

Tevos, having lost some of the confidence she had begun this meeting with, chose to keep her questions to the point after that point and in return, Anna answered everything in detail and made sure to define differences between Cubus as a race and the Nymphomaniac groups who ‘claimed’ that they were Cubus descendants when the truth was they simply had no control over their own sexual needs or desires, even going as far as to remark that some Nymphomaniacs had tried to slip into the grounds once only to be chased off by the security dogs and charged for trespassing.

When the subject of fatalities came up, a question Tevos had been trying so hard not to touch on, Anna had smiled. “I could feed on everyone in this room for the next one hundred years and the only one who would suffer any kind of ill effect is my dad.” She said pointing at her father. “As part of my DNA comes form him and he is human, the feeding would be more like a parasitic leech then a mother feeding her child.”

“I doubt Councilor Valern would survive that long,” Hannah smiled, “Salarians don’t have long lives naturally dear, fifty years at a push.”

“So, don’t feed on Salarian’s got it,” Anna said and at the confused look from Tevos she added, “Short lives usually means high chance of elevated stresses and sensations, that can lead to over taxing of the organs, leading to faster shut down of the body in extreme situations, sensations are a huge part of feedings to a Cubus, thus, it would likely lead to a shorter life span for a Salarian.”

“We could test them, but that would need a consenting pair of both genders for Turian and Salarian.” Tara said, and then smiled and gently tugged Anna’s hair and began to plat it. “Quarian and Drell and maybe the Krogan too,” she added.

“Down girl.” Hannah smiled playfully while Miranda groaned.

“Please don’t encourage my daughter to explore sexual games Tara, she is already curious.” John called form his place in the kitchen.

“Ghostly voices will be ignored until my cake slice is in my hands.” Tara called back sweetly. “Besides, she’s a smart girl and a pretty one at that, I’m sure she can choose for herself.” She added as she lightly twisted some string around the end of the plat. “Though I’m sure she’ll have a very easy time chasing off the unwanted attention.”

“A few stomach aches and a nasty dream or two.” Anna smiled a little too sweetly.

“What do you mean?” Tevos asked.

“Cubus can manipulate sensory input and mental awareness easily when someone is within range, from making them think someone is attractive to vivid dreams, we can do this to help relax a willing partner suffering from nightmares or healing from a traumatic injury or we can use the same ability to create a nightmare and inflict a phantom pains to a person who is not wanted or who is unwilling to take a simple no as an answer.” Anna explained. “It’s never a physical injury, just a sensation of one, but it’s usually enough to drive the idiots away.” 

“Are there any races that are immune to this ability?” The Asari Councilor asked.

“On Earth, Cubus are immune, as are some of the older Vampires and the skin shifters.” Anna explained, “As for yourselves and other Aliens, we’d have to test it.”

“And what would this test entail?” Sparatus asked.

“A female and male of age to have intimate relations of the race in question willing to stand in the mist of the Cubus for a few minutes while the mist takes a small sample of their energies and colors it, depending on the tone and color of the energies depends on what we can or can not feed on from that race and if it will have any ill or positive effects to feeding on that race. Though for the Asari, I think it would be a little difficult for me to conduct the test properly.”

“Why?” Tevos asked.

“Most Asari identify as ‘female’ and given that their live along lives naturally, a young one like me couldn’t get an accurate result from any Asari above the Maiden stage of their lives, and while I could feed on them, if I tried to feed on a Matron or even a young Matriach, I would not only risk becoming ill but also cause harm to my partner. Given that fact the test on any Asari would have to be done by Lady Cassie or Lady Brown, as they both stand as Cubus elders and thus, have the age and skill to preform a more detailed and in-depth test.” Anna explained with a polite nod to her elders, then smiled as her father placed a small cake slice down before her.

“How is this test preformed?” Valern asked. “It does not sound like anything I have ever heard of before.” He added.

“As I said, a willing male and female of any race wishing to partake would need to stand in the Mist of a Cubus for a few minutes. I’ve been told that the mist is a warm blanket or sheet being placed around the body and can leave a slight tingling feeling for a few minutes after the test is complete but that is concerning Earth races, so I am not sure if that would be the same for a Turian and Krogan, given that they have plated skin.” Anna said.

“Somehow I doubt your bodies could handle a Krogan in mating.” Valern said.

Anna smiled, taking a fork full of her cake while Cassie, Hannah and Alec shared a look, but did nothing to stop Tara as she spoke up. “Just because you can’t stretch to accommodate a cock larger than you own doesn’t mean everyone else has to shy away from the fun of sex.” She stated and Miranda groaned from her place.

“Must everything be a sexual adventure to you?” she asked.

“Oh, have some fun in life Miranda, you’ll never have a child of your own if you stay cooped up in that lab of yours.” Tara chuckled while emptying her drink. “John dear could you mix me a Cubus special?”

“Yes Tara.” John nodded.

“I’ll have a child when I am ready for one.” Miranda said. “I have other things to do in life before being a mother.”

“You’re almost an elder.” Hannah reminded, sipping her drink.

“I’ll have one when I am ready.” Miranda repeated again.

“Anna.” Anderson warned softly, and Anna quickly reached out and caught her hamster before it could fall out of its box, gently pacing the small creature into the box again and gently petted it’s fluffy body.

“As Lady Brown said, just because we look small and human like to you does not mean we aren’t capable of enduring larger sizes and shapes during intimacy. The body of all Cubus can stretch and adjust to most things given time and chance to adjust, unless of cause like Lady Tara a Cubus is more incline to the S and M side of sex.” Anna said, ignoring the still stuttering Salarian councilor for now. “We gain the most energy and nutrition from a sexual encounter with any willing partner and many Cubus before me were known to actively seek out Skin shifters as mates and enjoyed a variety of sizes without having to go looking for other’s partners.”

“The fun of younger days, no Hannah?” Tara smiled and Hannah ducked her head slightly, elbowing Tara. “save the foreplay for the bedroom.” 

“Should I be worried?” John asked placing a fizzing yellow liquid in a glass down before Tara Brown.

“You weren’t even a sperm in the ball sack my love, and you have far better manners.” Hannah smiled.

“You weren’t complaining when they had you pinned-” Tara began only to fall silent as Cassie gently placed a finger to her lips.

“We are getting off topic.” The elder stated, “You can share your sexual adventures another time.” She assured and Tara smiled brightly.

“Any further Questions?” Anna asked Tevos, letting her father take the now empty plate away while she went back to petting her hamster.

“There is one, but I do not know how to ask without sounding like I am insulting you.” Tevos admitted after a few moments.

“We can not kill anyone by having sex with them.” Anna said, “Ardat-Yakshi meld minds with their partners, and over power them mentally, resulting in death. Cubus who attempt such an act risk becoming mentally unstable and thus results in a long and painful death, and if they are able to survive that pain and somehow live, they face the Elders.” She added with a shudder.

“Has it happened?” Tevos asked.

“Twice where the Cubus died from mental stresses when I was Anna’s age, and once where a Cubus has survived to face the Elders when I reached my prime.” Tara said coldly, “Foolish little girl thought it was a wise idea to try and mentally destroy one of the Vampire lords. He helped her survive and then handed her over to the elders.”

“You have no love for them?”

“Cubus are taught that the mind is like a recording device, a perfect memory of all events and believes, wishes and dreams of a person. To taint that or try and erase it is considered an act of direct disrespect to the ancestors of our race and that is a act of treason towards the three sisters.” Anna explained, “We are able to manipulate sensations, trick the mind into thinking there is contact and feeling when there is none, but we are forbade from ever joining minds with a partner without first having their consent and even then, we are restricted from doing anything more than creating a calming dream to allow our partner a restful sleep in the case of nightmares or even insomnia.”

“To do anything more than this without a justified reason or without the permission of the person a Cubus shares their mind with results in a trail.” Tara said. “We do not tamper with the minds of others.” 

“And what punishment befalls those who do not follow this rule?” Sparatus asked.

“Ellen, John please leave the room.” Cassie said softly as she set her cup down, John nodded and helped Ellen up from her seat and took Anna’s hamster with them while Miranda closed the curtains of the windows. “Try not to move, the images will distort if you disburse the mist.” She added as Tara gave Anna a gentle nudge and the younger Cubus moved to stand beside Lady Cassie as Tara’s skin marks began to glow and uncoil from her body, pulling the mist from Hannah, Cassie and Tara herself to create a swirling mass of colors as her marks created a shimmering frame around the mist.

Then, the mists shifted and became a reflective surface that Miranda and Anna gently pressed their hands against as Alec used a single finger to draw a swift star and set it spinning. Swirling the mist to create a spiraling pattern of color as images formed in the surface. 

“This is a Memory from Tara’s past, the trial of Amelia Heath. The Cubus who tried to destroy the Vampire lord’s mind we mentioned before.” Alec explained as the memory played out. “By reliving this Tara also releases a pheromone that can be harmful to humans, as a means of protecting herself.”

} A young girl, dressed in a long white dress and held in shackles and surrounded by other Cubus, all of whom looked displeased and angry with the girl before them.

“Amelia Heath. You are charged with mental assault on a Vampire Lord and all evidence has shown you did this deliberately and in full awareness of your actions.” A male’s voice snarled down at the girl and the memory moved to show five Cubus elders, Cassie Ryder was stood to the right of Tara’s younger self, her skin marks only recently covering her face and neck. “Have you anything to say?”

“He lied to me!” Amelia snarled. “He promised me a life time of love and he lied! It was my Right!”

“Your rights ended when you cheated the Lord of his pleasures.” Another elder remarked calmly, “You made the deal that you were serve the Lord as his love and wife in return for his affection and his continued agreement to feed you, but in your actions of seeking another partner, you have broken your own contract and thus, the Lord is right to refuse you into his bed.” 

“Brown takes men and woman as she pleases! She is never trialed for her behavior!” Amelia snarled out.

“Lady Tara Brown.” Someone called suddenly and Tara turned her attention at once to the one who had spoken, an elderly man with markings so vivid and elaborate he was clearly the oldest of those gathered, Tara instantly bowed to him. “Stand my dear, I have a question.” 

“Yes sir?” 

“We are aware that you have not truly established any kind of harem, despite this, you have gathered a large following of lovers, can you prove them all willing to feed you? Willing to remain with you despite your adventures nature?” he asked.

“I can.” Tara assured and with a flick of her wrist she produced her own leather bound book, and handed it to a young Cubus child who quickly brought it to the elders, each of who carefully searched the book’s pages, checking it against something that Tara’s past self could not see before it was returned to her.

“Your accusations hold no ground, as Lady Tara Brown has just proven her lovers to be willing and accepting of her ways.” The oldest Cubus stated, “You have no case, and thus, it is our judgement that you, Amelia Heath, shall never again threaten the truce of our people with the other None human races.”

“Wait-NO! You can’t!!” 

“By order of the Elders, you will be stripped of your Markings and your Cubus Mist shall be removed, you will lose all that you have gained in your life and are sentenced to death by Sensory over load.” The elder stated and with a echoing snap of his fingers the ground beneath Amelia began to shimmer with violet flames, a thick red fog seeping into Amelia’s body and seeming to rip the skin marks away from her body forcefully, causing the girl to bleed and scream as her blue mist was torn from her body by the violet flames and red fog.

The young appearance faded with each passing second, swiftly aging and processing to form nothing more than a shriveled and dusted corpse that fell into the flames and fog before sinking into the ground, leaving only the shackles behind. {

Tara turned away from the images as her skin marks recoiled and lay flat against her skin once again, Tara herself slumping against Hannah for a moment as she panted and trembled. Miranda quickly brought a bowl of grapes and a glass of fizzing green liquid that Tara quickly drained and then snatched the yellow drink John had made before and drained that as well before taking the grapes.

“Memory viewing is very draining, even on elders.” Hannah explained, “We only use them to show events of death or to resolve conflicts of consent or violent fights between the Cubus families.”

“I had forgotten just how much I disliked that whiny little brat.” Tara sneered. “My family has always been a fictious one, no one cares as long as the partners were willing and signed to say so. Silly little girl.”

“Calm down Tara, your skin is heating up.” Cassie said softly as she turned back to the room where Ellen and John had gone. “You may come back inside now.” 

“Any more questions?” Anna asked as her father handed her back her hamster, the small creature crawling over her arms and then vanishing for a moment into her breast pocket.

“Have you considered what your apparent openness of what you are will be accepted by others?” Tevos asked.

Anna smiled, “Asari as a race are not shy about themselves during their Maiden and Matron years, only as Matriarchs do they show true maturity and wisdom and become the ‘mothering’ type. As a Race in general, they are more likely to seek out a sexual partner not of their own race as a means of expanding their knowledge and trying to avoid birthing an Ardat-Yakshi. Though on that topic, I doubt our two races will agree.” She said, “Turians have no restrictions in their Mating unless its in regard to the higher standing ones, such as the Primarch and sometimes Councilors but this is mostly to avoid scandal and black mail, not because Turians are shy about intimacy.”

“Salarians, though short lived also have little shyness in their intimacy though there have been cases of arranged marriages and this is again something Cubus frown upon.” Hannah said, “as for the rest of the races beyond earth, well, Castis was kind enough to give us a few details, though from what we have witness and heard of the Batarians, they will not be a worthwhile choice in partner.” 

“Or the Vorcha.” Anna said, “that’s a no and good bye before it even starts.” She added.

“Yet you would lay down with a Krogan.” Valern stated.

“You uplifted them, then when they were done saving your asses from the Rachni you tossed them aside, when they rebelled because of this mistreatment you created the Genophage, effectively doing to the Krogan what the Humans did to us.” Anna summarized. “If effect, you and yours are little more than spoilt brats who made a small race better then when it didn’t behave as you wanted you created the means to end them and let the Turians deploy it, thus resulting in the Krogan dislike of both your races and the deaths of countless innocent lives, for that reason alone, your race would be trailed and judged but ALL the none Human Races as murderers.” 

“Do remember that we are not uneducated by the races or the wars beyond Earth.” Hannah remarked. “We can and will win any argument when it concerns the rights of any Race, having been robbed of our own rights and freedoms by humanity means we are more than aware of the results and consequences of such actions.”

“Valern if you want to ask more questions, I suggest you arrange another meeting.” Tevos said, “The leaders of the Asari worlds are requesting a privet meeting with the Cubus to perform the test they require to see if we are suited to feed your unique needs, but they are also asking for a longer time to ask questions that are, unsuited to be heard by my collages.” She explained. 

Anna nodded, “Well, if that is the request why not make an event of it?” She asked. “By Cubus law we must be invited so a location, so why now have all the leaders meat in one place and stay there for a given time, this allows the Asari to ask their questions and also study the way any Cubus interacts and adjusts to a new environment.”

“How long does it take for your kind to adjust to a new place?” Sparatus asked.

“Six to eight days.” Cassie said. “But to be fair and give a true chance for study, perhaps a human month would be a better time frame for such an event?” 

“Sounds like a fun adventure.” Tara smiled. “should I pack my corsets?” 

“Only if you plan on teaching me how to make one.” Anna said and ducked the playful swat from her mother while her father gave a defeated sigh.

“What happened to the days you were happy with making cookies and pancakes in the morning?” John asked.

“I still like that, but you are always on missions so it’s a rare treat now.” Anna smiled. 

 

The talk went on for a few more hours and then when there was no more to say that could be said, John reluctantly said good bye to his wife and daughter as he was due to ship out again and thus, would be staying on the Citadel and not returning to the Cubus house hold. In the meantime, Councilor Tevos would be making the arrangements for the Cubus’ visit to the Asari home world of Thessia, leaving Councilor Valern and Councilor Sparatus to report to their own people their findings and Hackett to transcribe the meeting from his orb to a d-pad that could be copied and send to the Dalatrasses and the Primarch. Valern was not happy, and his anger had been clear when his office had been locked off to everyone but his fellow Councilors, though Sparatus had been so flooded with papers that he had to request his prodigy help him file and organize the work better even with his assistants attempts to try and keep the reports and requests in order.

Udina had caused a huge stir up of panic and fear amongst the people on the Citadel and despite efforts to calm the fears, it had become clear that people were getting the wrong information from the wrong places about the Cubus race and within a matter of hours, Tevos, Sparatus and Valern were being swarmed with reporters and questions that could not be answered. It was Admiral Hackett who spoke up in the Cubus’ defense, reminding everyone that the Cubus race was not a threat and that it had been them who saved the Earth from the Batarian attack, he also made it clear that any further attempts to sully the names and nature of the Cubus would be punishable by the Cubus themselves and that was only if Hackett and his people didn’t get hold of them first.

News traveled fast about that and after permission from the Sol’s Board came in that Udina had no authority to keep the Hidden Races Hidden any longer, the Alliance and Council gave a FULL detailed conference for their people and races of Council Space, giving the whole story of the Cubus and other once Hidden races as the few Wraiths and vampires who had made their home on the Citadel and in Council space made themselves known, and while Udina had tried so hard to remain anonymous in the whole report, he was named as the cause of the upstart and summoned back to earth for a FULL investigation into his behavior and given a stern reprimand from his higher ups for causing this whole mess.

In the meantime, the Council requested that all none humans not hide their true forms, much to Hackett’s relief the request was met with positive outcome and no one was against the sudden introduction of the none human races showing themselves to the rest of the races.

Hackett enjoyed the freedom to show his true form, having spent so long hiding it, it was a wonderful relief to enjoy his true form and not be judged for it by others as he went about his work without any kind of trouble or harassment from others for showing his true appearance and he found it amazing to see the still shocked looks on people’s faces when they came to see him in his office and to see how many of the Vampires, Wraiths and even some brave Skin shifters had been able to find stable and steady homes in the colonies.

Eventually the Asari were able to gather on Thessia, using the home of Matriach Benezia as their gathering place as it was not only spacious, it was also easy to protect from any threat and allowed a beautiful view of the massive gardens, then with the correct summoning recital and an offering Hackett had recommended for the Cubus Benezia herself preformed the summoning of the Cubus this time. As before there was a few moments of silence and nothing and then with a small tingle of warm air and the Cubus arrived in their mist like form, taking a few minutes longer to martialize, but this was quickly explained as the distance being longer to travel than from Earth to the Citadel.

“Alec is not joining us?” Benezia asked realizing the male Cubus was missing.

“He has chosen to stay with Ellen, mourning is never easy for our kin, and for him to be away from her now that they have lost their children could make him aggressive.” Cassie explained, “Better to let him mourn his loss and then join us than drag him along now and risk him snapping at Anna or Miranda.”

“Besides, as an Incubus, he has no reason to seek another lover besides Ellen, unlike Succubus, Incubus need only one love to sustain themselves.” Tara explained. “And him staying home means people like Udina don’t have the opportunity to try and steal anything from our home.”

“Foolish idea if ever I heard one, but then again, Udina is an idiot.” Anna huffed, looking a little pale. “Mist travel is not so fun long distance. My head hurts.”

Hannah smiled and lightly caught her daughter before she could fall and held her in a gentle embrace. “Breath deep and focus your thoughts on a single thing, like waterfalls or cute hamsters.” She suggested, gently running her fingers through Anna’s hair as the younger Cubus smiled.

Tara looked around the house, smiling brightly, “Natural lighting over artificial, sculptured features with beautiful arts, clean air and flowers that grow FAR better than the ones in my green houses, Cassie did we pass away and come back in heaven?”

“I can assure you that didn’t happen,” Cassie smiled, leaning on her cane. “Now, shall we begin?”


End file.
